Prophet, Priest and King
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2021 · 19 December 2021
The promise of God in the Old Testament was that there would come an Anointed One, the Savior, the Redeemer and Deliverer. But He would also be the ultimate Prophet, the ultimate Priest, and the ultimate King. Isaiah 42:1 says, “Behold, My Servant,” God means “Messiah “whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him.”
The Messiah would be all three. According to Deuteronomy 18, He would be a prophet like Moses. According to Psalm 1:10, He would be a priest; and that’s repeated again in Zechariah 6. According to Psalm 2, He would be a unique priest, and then again in 2 Samuel 7, He would be King. He would be the King in David’s line. Psalm 2 says He would rule the nations of the world.
This is God’s plan and promise. It didn’t happen; centuries went by, until as Paul says in Galatians 4:4, the fullness of time came. And then He was born; and that’s what lands you right in Luke 2:11, “Today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Messiah, the Anointed One, and the Lord.” Now in Bethlehem, the Messiah has arrived, the Prophet, Priest, and King above all.
The disciples knew He was the promised Messiah. He declared that Himself; look at Luke 4:16, “He came to Nazareth and entered the synagogue, stood up to read. He took the book of the prophet Isaiah which was handed to Him. He opened the book and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,’ and that is what we just read in Isaiah 61.
‘Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.’ He closed the book, gave it back and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
In John 11:25, “Jesus says to Martha, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.’ Do you believe this?’ She said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God.’” She declared that He is that promised Redeemer, Savior, Deliverer, Messiah, Prophet, Priest, and King.
All three of those come together in Hebrews 1:1-3, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”
Now we know that the natural man cannot understand the things of God, 1 Corinthians 2:14 – “they’re foolishness to him.” The unbeliever is dead and blind; he is unable to discern. “The god of this world has blinded his mind, lest the light of the gospel would shine unto him,” Paul says to the Corinthians. We do not expect man to understand God or the gospel in a natural sense.
In the Old Testament we’re reminded here that God spoke long ago, to the fathers in the prophets in many ways. Many ways like direct revelation, indirect revelation, inspired writing, visions, dreams, types, symbols. Some of the Old Testament is history, some of it is poetry, some of it is law, some of it is prophecy, but all of it is God speaking. That is why it is called the Word of God.
God had to speak. We could not know Him if He did not speak; and He did. This simply says, “God has spoken,” the true God, not an idol, not a dumb piece of wood or rock, not an impersonal cause, not an indifferent power; but God has spoken, which means He is a person, and He has spoken. And that is why the Bible is called the Word of God. But the 39 books of the Old Testament are in a sense, incomplete.
The Old Testament are separate books, stretched over a millennium, written by many different authors; and it was progressive, but incomplete. God was increasing our understanding as revelation continued. No prophet got the full revelation of God, not until we see in verse 2 that God spoke unto us through His Son. No prophet ever grasped the full truth of God, until Jesus revealed the full truth.
Jesus was not an incomplete revelation. In Him, God did not display only some facets of Himself or some facets of His truth, but God fully revealed Himself. No longer in diverse manners and diverse ways, but singularly through Christ. John 1, “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God,” speaking of the Son of God. So we know the Word, Jesus is God.
John 1:14, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Full truth is revealed in Him. Verse 18: “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” In Jesus God is fully revealed, and the New Testament is written about this full revelation.
The four Gospels describe the arrival and the ministry of Jesus. The book of Acts describes the apostolic preaching concerning Jesus. The Epistles lay out the significance of His life and death and resurrection and implications in the world. And the New Testament culminates in the book of Revelation with His glorious return. The New Testament is all about Jesus Christ.
God spoke in His Son. And by the way, the words of Jesus, they said they’d never heard a man speak like that man spoke. It was clear even to Nicodemus, the teacher in Israel, that Jesus was a teacher sent from God. He spoke for God. In fact, He says He only spoke what God wanted Him to speak. In John 5, you see how powerful His words are, the most powerful expression of His words since creation.
John 5:25, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” His words are so powerful they not only created the entire universe, they not only sustained that universe, but they’re so powerful that He will raise all the dead in the end. “Just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son to also have life in Himself.
“27 And God gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, 29 and will come forth; those who did good deeds to the resurrection of life, those who committed the evil to a resurrection of judgment.” He speaks, and the universe comes into existence.
Christ speaks, and the dead are taken out of their graves, given a body suited for heaven or a body suited for hell. That’s how powerful His words are. He is the revelation of God in full. Verse 2 begins by saying, “In these last days.” That’s a familiar phrase to the Jews. It meant the messianic age. He had arrived in God’s time to be the Messiah, and He is the voice of God.
John 14:24, “And the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” He’s the perfect Prophet; He speaks only the words that God ordained for Him to speak. In Luke 13:33 He says, “Nevertheless I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem.” So He recognizes Himself as a prophet.
In Luke 24:19, “They said to Him, ‘The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people.” He stated Himself to be a prophet, and those who followed Him declared that He was in fact a prophet. There had never been a prophet like Him. His words were full of grace and truth, and powerful enough to raise the dead.
Acts 3:17-21 says, “I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore and be converted…, 20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before…21…which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” Jesus is God’s voice.
The Old Testament shows this revelation. In Abraham, we find the nation of Messiah. In Jacob, we find the tribe of Messiah. In David and Isaiah, we find the family of Messiah. In Micah, we find the town of Messiah. In Daniel, we find the time of Messiah. In Malachi, we find the forerunner of Messiah. In Isaiah, we find the death and resurrection of Messiah. But each writer only knew in part.
But when Christ arrived, He is the full revelation of God. And Hebrews tells us, “This one speaks for God.” The writer is defining Christ. Verse 2, “He is the Son of God. He is the heir of all things. He is the one who made the world. He is the radiance of God’s glory. He is the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.” No prophet ever had such powerful words.
.Jesus Christ is also the heir of all things. He possesses the right to absolutely everything. In Revelation 5, this is illustrated when the Lamb of God comes out of the throne and picks up the sealed book, which is the title deed to the universe. And then all of heaven bows down to worship Him as He unrolls the title deed to the universe and begins to take it back from the usurper.
John 1:3 says, “Everything was made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Colossians 1:16 says He created absolutely everything by His word. He spoke it into existence. He speaks with such power He could create the universe. John 5 says, He can raise the dead and bring them to a final form suited for heaven and suited for hell by the word of His mouth.
Verse 3 says, “He’s the radiance of God’s glory.” He’s the Light of all. When it says, “He is the radiance,” it’s the word “brightness” actually. “He is the shining forth of God’s glory,” We see the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus. Just as the radiance of the sun reaches the earth and lights and warms, give life and grows, so Christ is the glorious Light of God shining into the hearts of men.
Not only that, He is the ruler of all: “He upholds all things by the word of His power.” This is speaking about His power to sustain everything that exists. Everything in the universe has to be held together, and it is held together by the word of His power. Notice, “the word of His power.” He speaks, and the universe is created. He speak constantly, continually, and the universe is sustained.
And, secondly, He is not only the Prophet who reveals God, but He is the Priest who reconciles to God. Verse 3, “When He had made purification of sins.” This introduces us to His priestly work. That what priests did. That’s what Jesus did. He offered the only sacrifice that could take away sin. And the writer of Hebrews wants us to understand there’s never been a priest like this one.
Hebrews 2:17, “He became a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” He offered a sacrifice that satisfied God. No priest ever did that. Hebrews 4:14, “We have a great high priest, Jesus Christ the Son of God who can sympathize with our weakness, He is One who has been tempted in all things as we are, but without sin.
Hebrews 5:5, “So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but God said to Him, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You,’ just as He also in another passage says, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Verse 9 says, “Having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.”
Hebrews 9, “When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. And thus He is the mediator of a better covenant, in which redemption is accomplished.”
Thirdly, we meet Him as the King. Verse 3, “When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” The priest never sat down because his work was never finished. But Jesus sat down because He was a king. He sat down at the power side of the Majesty on high; He took His rightful place. As the book of Revelation says, He became King of kings and Lord of lords.
2 Samuel 7:12 says, “I God, will set up your seed after you, David, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.”
So the writer of Hebrews introduces us to the Christ: the Prophet who reveals God; the Priest who reconciles us to God; and the King who reigns with God. The evidence of His sovereign royalty is verse 4, “Having inherited a more excellent name than the angels. God said, ‘I will be a Father to Him and He shall be a Son to Me.” And He says, ‘let all the angels of God worship Him.’” Let us pray.