The Prophet, Priest, and King

Amen. Technology doesn't like it when we pray because every time I think it's if you stand right there I think that's what does it is uh it's not your fault but uh it's good the Lord heard what need needed to be heard. Well, good morning everyone. Kids, we're going to go ahead and dismiss them. Yeah, kids head out to the little district. For the rest of us, go ahead and grab your Bibles.

Hebrews chapter 1. You can guess it. Verse three. That's right. Verse three. Uh we've been uh hanging out here since August 9th.

I looked looked back at it. August 9th. We've been in these first three verses. Uh but we are closing out verse three today. And so uh we have arrived and it's good to um it's good to be able to take things slow to be able to read through it to be able to observe it to be able to see exactly what God is speaking to us. Um because that's what this is.

This is God speaking into us. He's he's telling us what he wants us to know about his son Jesus, about who the person of Christ is um and the work of Christ as well. And so we want to make sure that we don't fly by it. We want to make sure that we simmer with it. We want to make sure that we study it. We want to make sure that we meditate on it.

Um that it gets into our hearts, that it gets into our minds, that it gets into our souls. um so that it does the work of transforming us to become more like Jesus because we see him for who he truly is, who he truly is. And so we've been kind of looking at this um because really you got to understand verses 1 through3 because it's the foundation for the next 13 chapters. And so think about it like if you're studying a map or you're trying to decode something, it's the key that decodes it. It's the key that helps you understand everything else. It unlocks the secrets and the mysteries of everything else.

And so as we as we look at the 13 chapters, you're we're going to keep coming back to verses 1 through3 in order to say, "Yeah, now that we're talking about these sacrifices, remember who's the one that made purification for sins? Now that we're talking about truth being exposed, remember who was the one who came and is now speaking as God." So, we need to make sure we understand these verses to be able to have the key to everything else in this. And so, I want to read them for you one more time, verses 1 through3, and then uh you'll see how we'll kind of wrap up uh in a way kind of concluding this minieries before we continue on in the rest of the series. But it says this in verse one. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. And so where we started with in August on August 9th was that God has spoken. And then from there we see that everything is for Jesus.

Ultimately everything is for Jesus because he's the heir of all things. And that also everything is from Jesus because through him God created the entire world. We saw that Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God. meaning he doesn't just merely reflect God like a bicycle reflector reflects the sun when it shines on it. No, he is the radiance of God's glory. He is the light shining, but he is also the source that is producing the light.

He's also the imprint, the exact imprint of God's nature. meaning he doesn't merely resemble God like a son resembles a father, but he is the exact same substance. What makes the father God is the same thing that makes Jesus God. He shares the divine nature. And last week we saw that Jesus does a couple of things. He upholds the universe by the word of his power.

meaning everything remains as it is because Jesus says so. Just simply a word. So he's not sweating trying to keep the earth on its axis spinning the way it's spinning at around the around the sun and the speed that it's going. He's not trying to hold that together in some way. He just simply says and it follows. It obeys.

And then we looked at the fact that he made purification for sins by carrying the cross. And so I've used the analogy that the Old Testament was like a puzzle with many pieces. And God has been progressively revealing to our ancestors in the faith each puzzle piece throughout all of history. But once every piece of the puzzle is put together, there's a picture that is actually revealed and it is the person and work of Jesus Christ. That's what he's explaining to us here. Long ago at many times in many ways, they spoke to our prophets by our or spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

They all had pieces of the puzzle and they didn't fully see the bigger picture of what was actually going on. But when Jesus shows up on the scene, he says, "You get to see the full picture of what all of that was pointing to." And I want you to see today is the three primary categories that when Jesus shows up, the full picture is revealed. And they're going to work up to this last one, him sitting on the throne. But it kind of helps summarize for us really what he's all talking about in these three verses. And it's primarily the role of prophet, priest, and king.

Prophet, priest, and king. Because throughout Israel's history, there were three particularly important offices through which God spoke, through which God ministered to his people, and through which God ruled his people. And those three offices are prophet, priest, and king. The prophet's primary job was to speak God's word to the people. That was the prophet's job. The priest then would go the opposite direction.

The priest represented the people before God and would offer sacrifices on behalf of the people to God. And then the king ruled God's people ultimately under God's authority. But the reality is throughout Israel's history, all three of those offices were incomplete with a human operating the office. They were incomplete because every prophet eventually stops speaking. Every priest eventually dies and every king eventually surrenders his crown throughout all of them. But all three of them were still puzzle pieces showing who was going to actually come and fulfill not just one, not just two, but all three of them as one person for eternity.

For eternity. And what Hebrews is doing is saying what the people actually needed was a perfect prophet, a perfect priest, and a perfect king. That's what they need in order to commune with God. And the author of Hebrews is saying, "He's here. He's here." If Jesus had an Instagram account, his bio would simply say, "Eternal son of God, prophet, priest, and king."

Like, that's what he would be represented as in communicating to the world. And so, I want to show you each of these as they build to the final declaration before we move on next week to verses four through 14. And we'll see how long it takes us to get through those. But number one, he says this, Jesus is the perfect prophet. He's the perfect prophet. And that's important for us to understand because all of these have a response on our part on our part.

God speaks not simply through him, but by him and in him. There's a difference there. Hebrews again begins long ago at many times and in many ways he God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. A prophet's primary responsibility was to speak the word of God to the people of God. To speak the word of God to the people of God.

That's why when you look at the prophets of the Old Testament, whenever they would speak on behalf of God, they would start their phrases with this, "Thus says the Lord." So they're making a distinction that we're not speaking as ourselves, but what we are speaking is what the Lord has spoken. And we need you to understand that because if you're just hearing a man give you some ideas or give you a TED talk in Jerusalem, that's not what they want. That's not what they need. What they need is what the Lord is speaking. And so the prophets would come on behalf of the Lord and they would say, "Thus says the Lord."

And so Moses would speak, Isaiah would speak, Jeremiah would speak, Ezekiel would speak, Elijah would speak. They would speak as the Lord is speaking. And God genuinely revealed himself through them. But it was again progressive and fragmentaryary. God was revealing his purposes across generations, puzzle piece after puzzle piece after puzzle piece. But then Hebrews shows up and says, "In these last days, he has spoken to us by his son."

He's spoken to us by his son. That's the contrast. Not through the son, but by the son or better translated in Christ. He speaks. So the prophets would say, "Thus says the Lord." And what Jesus shows up and says, "Truly, truly I say to you."

That's different. That's different. He's not saying thus says the Lord. He actually is saying truly truly listen to me. Why? Because he carries the authority as the perfect prophet.

He carries the authority of God. He is speaking because he is God. Again, prophets were flesh who received the word. Jesus is the word who received a flesh. These are two different things. Two different things.

And that's why John begins, and we've looked at John a few times over the course of these sermons so far, but that's why John begins by saying, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God." And the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And then down in verse 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. So this flesh that is dwelling among us and speaking is the word of God. He is the perfect prophet.

He is the one when he speaks it is God speaking. And that's why Jesus can also say whoever has seen me has seen the father because he's saying what makes the father God is what makes me go. Jesus doesn't merely bring us information from God like the prophets did. In Jesus, God has given us the climactic revelation of himself. Himself. And that's why we've been able to say to see Jesus is to see God.

Is to see God. It's not a manifestation of God. And he was just this man who lived for 33 years and did godly things. He is God himself. He is God himself. And that's why in Deuteronomy 18, Moses gives a prophecy of the prophet that will eventually come, the perfect prophet.

He says this in Deuteronomy 18, I believe it's 15. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you. It is to him that you shall listen. It is to him that you shall listen. When Peter preaches Jesus in Acts 13 or in Acts three, he explicitly identifies Jesus with that promised prophet of Deuteronomy. Again, the prophet spoke God's word, but Jesus is God's word.

He is God's word. He is the fulfilled and final prophet. the fulfilled and final prophet, which means he's the final authority of God fully being revealed. Final authority on God fully being revealed. So, we don't need any more information. We don't need any more information.

We don't need another book of the Bible. We don't need another prophecy or prophetic word. And that's why I believe Paul later goes on to say if anybody shows up on the scene, even an angel disguised and brings some new truth or new revelation, what they're saying is actually Jesus wasn't enough and what he said wasn't good enough and it wasn't final and it wasn't complete and it was just another piece of the puzzle and therefore we need something else. God would say, "Let that angel or whoever it is that shows up, let them be accursed. Let them be accursed." And so, it's a shaky thing.

It's a dangerous thing to be able to come in and say, "I've got a word from the Lord." If it's not in scripture. If it's not in scripture. Why? Because Jesus showed up on the scene and spoke and what he spoke was final. It was final.

And all of the Old Testament is pointing forward and testifying to who Christ is. That's why the best Bible study that's ever been written is Jesus on the road to Emmas when he's walking with these two disciples. And he's explaining from Moses all the way to Christ being born how everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus. I mean, he just unravels the whole thing. This puzzle piece, that's about me. This other puzzle piece, that's about me.

This king, that's about me. That prophet, that's about me. That sacrifice, that's about me. And so he says, he basically explains everything. And what we have in the New Testament are the apostles, the disciples of Jesus who are recording everything that he spoke and every word that he did to be able to show how it was revealed to us. So that everything we see is wrapped up in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

And we don't need anything else. We don't need anything else. It all testifies and points to him, who he is, and what he did and what it accomplishes for us. And so Christianity is not fundamentally a search for another message or a new word. Again, that's going to get you in trouble real quick. Christianity is looking back on the one who spoke as God and what did he say?

What did he do? God has spoken and his decisive word is Jesus. It's Jesus. So the question for us is not primarily has God said enough. The question is are we listening to what has already been said? Are we listening to what has already been said?

Are we listening to his son? Because I actually think that's probably one of the issues right now in modern culture is we're people are okay with saying Jesus existed. He was a man. He lived back in the first century. he died a a brutal death. They might not go any further beyond that.

They might not really, you know, contemplate whether or not he rose from the grave. And maybe even if they actually do think he rose from the grave, they're probably just chalking it up to some kind of supernatural event that happened because back in that day, crazy things happened. But they don't actually look into the scriptures and see what did Jesus claim. Who did he say he was? Not what the people say he is. Who did he say he is?

What did he say he came to accomplish and do? Because when you start actually diving into the word that God that Jesus spoke, you have to do something with it. You have to respond to it. You have to either accept who he claims to be and if he is what he says he is and who he is then you have to either reject him and row your fist against him or you bend your knee to him. You submit to him and that's why this actually becomes this is the dilemma that the Hebrews are in. these Jewish Christians and also and you'll hear just keep saying that because it's primarily written to Jewish Christians that believe but also a group of Jews who have heard of Christianity are in contemplating whether or not it's true.

And so what you're going to see is a theme that is continuing to to spread throughout Hebrews is this Hebrews 2:1. Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard. So, essentially, he's saying we must pay very close attention to what Jesus has claimed. Hebrews 3:15 says this, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." Do not harden your hearts. That would be to hear the message and reject it and walk away from it and say, "I don't want that.

I want something else." And he's saying, "Don't do that. Don't harden your hearts." Hebrews 12:25, he would warn them this way. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. Again, who's he referencing there?

He's going back to verses one through three. In these last days, God has spoken by his son. Do not refuse him who is speaking. Do not reject him who is speaking. If Jesus is God's perfect prophet who now speaks as God, the appropriate response is as Moses declared, listen to him. Listen to him.

And so that's the first call to action for us is if Jesus is the perfect prophet, are we listening to him? Are we listening to him? And yes, coming and hearing messages that are preached from the scriptures is one way in which we listen to him. It's one way in which we hear what he has taught, what he's taught, what he's spoken, what he has said. But at the same time, you need to get into this every single day so that you know what he is speaking to you. Because it's one thing to say, well, yes, I'm listening to him.

And then to follow it up with a question, so what is he saying to you? What what what then are you listening? I don't know. Well, then if you don't know what he said, then how can you say yes, I'm listening to him? That's like whenever I I I I had a conversation with a family member a couple of years ago. They said, "I'm a Christian."

I said, ' Okay. According to what? Because we had just gotten off of having about an hour conversation of them trying to disprove the authority of this. Well, it was just written by a bunch of men who wanted to have gain. And I was like, hold up a second. Have you seen what happened to the guys who wrote it?

I wouldn't count that as um political gain. I wouldn't count that like they didn't write a New York Times bestseller and then go retire somewhere on a lake. They got their heads chopped off, bodies sewn in half, boiled alive. So according to what? Are you listening to him? Do you know his word?

To listen to Christ is to read the word of God. And then as the two things here, as Moses says, listen to him. And then I love what Mary said when Jesus turned water into wine and they ask the question. What should we do? And she just simply says, "Do whatever he says. Just do whatever he says."

So that's the thing, guys. What do we do with our lives? We do whatever Jesus tells us to do. That that's that's listening to him. When you're a parent and you have a child who's being disobedient and we we we give a command and we say, "Do this. Don't do this."

And when they don't do that, what do we say? Are you listening to us? So listening isn't just hearing. Listening is requiring action, a response. It's requiring obedience. That's why when you go to to the the the great commission, the great commission is not just a verse in order to get you to move overseas and share the gospel with someone who's never heard it before.

The great commission is for us in this room right now every single day. And if you're like, "Well, remind me real quick what the great commission is. go into all the world and make disciples. And you're like, "Yeah, that's what I thought. Move overseas and share the gospel with somebody." No, no, no.

Teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded. That's what we're doing today. We're teaching you to observe what Jesus has commanded. That's what making a disciple is. That is a lifelong process. And so, are you listening to him?

And are you doing what he tells you to do? In the Old Testament, when the prophet would speak on behalf of God, he would go to the people and he would say, "Thus says the Lord." And then he would tell the people what to do. And if they didn't do it, that's disobedience. That's disobedience. That's sin.

You go all the way back to the garden. God and Eve, hey, here's the rules. And the rules were pretty awesome. Eat of anything you want in the entire garden. Do whatever you want. Do whatever you want.

Whatever you can dream up, whatever creativity you have. Figure it out. Have fun. Enjoy communion with me. Enjoy communion with one another. And enjoy all of creation.

But to make sure you understand that you are finite and I'm infinite, there's going to be a boundary. And that boundary is do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One rule that allowed for obedience to lead to life. And if they disobeyed, he said you'll die. So the one rule was listen to me and do as I say. And instead they chose to listen to a serpent that deceived them and do as he said.

That's sin. And what you have right now is you have the prophet of God, Jesus Christ, teaching you and commanding of you, come and follow me and do as I say. But you also have the prophets of this world that are saying, don't listen to him. Listen to us. Do what we say. Those two voices are speaking every single day.

You're being discipled every single day. Every single day you're being discipled. You're being discipled by every song that is sung. You're being discipled by every movie that you watch. You're being discipled by every book that you read. You're being discipled by every person that you hang out with.

Because everyone is preaching and proclaiming a message. And so the question then is who are we listening to and who are we obeying? Are we refusing the world and listening and following God? Yes and amen. Praise God. that leads to life.

But if we are refusing what we are hearing from him and we are walking in and listening to the world and doing what they tell us to do, that's disobedience and that will lead to death and destruction. We don't have to we we don't have to make it more complicated than it is. It's simple. It is simple. Jesus is God's perfect prophet and therefore the appropriate response is to listen to him. But our problem again is deeper than just ignorance.

We don't merely need someone to tell us what God says because again after he tells us what is right, we still sin. So we don't need just a prophet. We also need a priest. We also need a priest. Jesus becomes the perfect priest. He is the perfect priest is number two.

Through Jesus, God makes purification for the sins of the people is what we covered last week. So I won't go into it too much here, but I want you to see it again just to make sure that we get it, that we understand it, that we see what Christ has accomplished for us. After making purification for sins, the author moves from revelation. God is now God is speaking to us by his son and he moves to redemption. The son is making purification for sins. He's made purifications for sins.

It's once. It's final. It's done. The prophet stands before the people and represents them represents God to them. The priest moves in the opposite direction. The priest is now representing the people to God.

And for a Jewish audience, man, their sirens are going to be going off. We we we understand this. We know what we're talking about here. Because immediately they're going to be thinking tabernacle. They're going to be thinking temple. They're going to be thinking altars.

They're going to be thinking blood, sacrifices, priests, cleansing, day of atonement. When they hear after making purification for sins, they're thinking, "We know this system. We know what he's talking about here." Why? Because again, sin creates a problem between God and man. And a holy God, listen to this, a holy God cannot simply sweep it under the rug or else he will no longer be just.

A holy, just, and righteous God cannot pretend that our rebellion or disobedience doesn't matter. That's how the world wants to handle sin, but that's not how God handles sin. And so he ushers in the office of priests in order to take sins seriously and for them to be dealt with so that God's wrath can be appeased and his wrath can be turned away. So throughout the old covenant, what you have is the job of the priest was to continually offer sacrifices on behalf of the people to ultimately turn away and appease God's wrath towards them. Leviticus 4:26 puts it this way. The priest shall make atonement for him for his sin and he shall then be forgiven.

So this was the system that was set up and it's because it goes all the way back to the garden. God literally tells them before they sin, what's going to happen when you sin? You will surely die. You will surely die. And so when they sin, death is then entered into our creation now. So now everything's dying.

Everything is dying. So if people ask why do bad things happen? Because everything's dying. That's why everything's broken. Everything's fractured. Why are there tornadoes that wipe out trailer parks?

Because that just seems to be where they go the most. It's because everything's dying. Why are there earthquakes? Because everything's dying. Why are there floods? Because everything's dying.

Creation is groaning. Creation is fractured. Creation is broken. Why are we aging? Why are we get why are we getting those gray hairs and and wrinkles on our face? And you know, again, once you hit 27 and beyond, you sleep and you tear a rotator cuff.

It all happens because we are dying. we are dying and so death has to be in order for the sin to be paid for. There's no other way around it. And God tells us this, a death must be paid. And so the office of the priest would be able to come in and he would bring in these animals and these animals would pay our penalty for us and would then temporarily forgive us of our sins. And so it would literally they would understand this.

These Jewish this Jewish audience would know, hey, this is what's happening. This is what he's talking about. There would be another lamb. There'd be another goat. There'd be another sacrifice. There'd be another year.

There'd be again and again and again. Why was it never enough? Because Hebrews 10:4 says, "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." So, what they are going back to and looking at, hey, remember when we used to do those goats things and the and the lambs and we would sacrifice those and remember Passover when the people are in slavery in in Egypt? Remember what we did? said, "We we took the lamb and we took its blood and we put it over the doorpost and the angel of death passed over us.

That was awesome. Let's go back to that." And it's like, "Hold up a second. You got to do it all every year. You got to keep doing it." Why?

Because an animal cannot eternally pay for the sins of a human. They're not on the same level. Humans imo day. Animals no IMO day. It's that simple. Now, does that mean you should mistreat animals?

No. Have good character. But does that mean you can go hunting because now it's duck season? Absolutely. Enjoy it. No mago day.

Dominion. They cannot solve the problem for us. A human must die for a human. So they were just simply puzzle pieces. Puzzle pieces. Look for the picture.

Look for the actual one who's going to come and do it once for all. This is why Hebrews is going to spend chapter after chapter explaining the magnitude of who Jesus is. Hebrews 9:12, he entered once for all into the holy places by means of his own blood, not the one of bulls and goats, but of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. Their redemption in the Old Testament, again, annually, literally like a membership to Costco. That's what it was. But Jesus's membership is lifelong.

It's eternal. It never ends and is paid for by him. That's why Hebrews 10:14 says this, "For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." Jesus is not merely the priest bringing the sacrifice. Jesus is the priest who becomes the sacrifice. Big difference.

Big difference from the Old Testament. And this is where everything we've already learned about Jesus makes the gospel almost unbelievable. Almost unbelievable. Because the one who is the heir of all things laid everything aside for sinners. The one through whom God created the world entered the world. The one who is the radiance of God's glory allowed himself to be buried in a cold, dark tomb.

The one who's the exact imprint of God's nature took on the exact imprint of human nature. The one who upholds the universe by the word of his power allowed his hands and feet to be nailed to a cross by the hands of sinners he sustains. It's it's it's almost unbelievable. The one carrying the cosmos went to the cross. Why? to remove from you death and grant you life.

Life. And he says, "Have it abundant. Have it abundant." And so if Jesus is our perfect prophet in whom we must listen, then as the perfect priest, the response is we must trust in him. We must trust in his work that his death and his bloodshed covers everything that we need. It's not just swept under the rug.

It's actually paid for in full. Do we trust that his sacrifice was enough? And that's why it leads to the last one here. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Number three, Jesus is the perfect king. He is the perfect king.

This is where the imagery shifts. We've moved from prophet to priest and now we move from priest to king. Jesus sat down. He sat down. Hebrews itself will eventually explain why that's so significant. It says in Hebrews 10:1-12 this, we just read it.

Every priest used to stand daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. That's why it's so significant. Why does he get to go sit down at the right hand of God? Because the work is done. It's finished.

Again, the old covenant priest, he stands because the work continues. It's never done. It's never finished. Jesus sits because his sacrifice is complete. Jesus didn't sit down because he was tired. He sat down because it was finished.

The work's done. And so, he didn't just finish the work. He took his throne. He took his throne. The right hand is the position of royal honor and authority. And the passage standing behind Hebrews is is Psalm 110 where he says, David says, "The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your foottool."

This is what Hebrews is drawing on. The reason why I could say that is because when we get down to verse 13, he quotes Psalm 110. To which of the angels has he ever said, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a foottool for your feet?" He's saying basically he's never said that to the angels and he's never said that to a human. The only one he's ever said that to is Jesus Christ himself. He is the one who sits at the right hand of God.

And so what we see here in verse one is that it gives us the king sit at my right hand. And then down in verse four, it gives us the priest. You are a priest forever after the order of MelkiseDC. And we'll get into who Melkisedc is. He's a fascinating character in scripture, but it's ultimately pointing for us. It's showing us that he's the prophet, that he's the priest, and that he is the king.

He speaks the word of God because he is the word of God. He offered the sacrifice to God because he became the sacrifice. And he takes the throne of God because he is the God of the throne. That's who this Jesus is. That's who this Jesus is. From the cosmos to the cross to the crown is the progression here.

And it matters. It matters. It matters for your every single day because as prophet we are to listen to him. As priests we are to trust him. And as king we are to bow down. We are to bow down.

We are to bend our knee to him because all authority is his. Remember going back to that great commission, Matthew 28:19 and 20. Oftentimes people will forget verse 18. Verse 18 is why we do the great commission because he starts it off by saying, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me." All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. That's the foundation for the great commission.

So if I'm the disciples and I'm sitting with Jesus on that mountain before he ascends off into heaven because all the work's done and he's giving them this great commission. It's just a mission statement. Hey, here's what the rest of your life is going to exist. This is the purpose for why you aren't going straight with me to heaven. Your purpose is to go into the world and make disciples. And the reason why you're going to do that is because all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

So whatever I say next, you do. Whatever I say next, you do. The great commission could have been anything. And it would be the great commission. What makes it great is because it's coming from the one who possesses all authority in heaven on earth. It's coming from the king of kings.

The king of kings. Paul later elaborates on this theology when he says in Ephesians 1 that God raised Jesus from the dead and this and I quote seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. That's why it's so crazy to follow anything the world says when scripture tells us over and over and over again that Christ sits above it, that his word is greater than the world's word. And yet we have the audacity as his creation, as humans to sit here and debate between which way is better, the world's way or Jesus who is the way. Which one's better? It's insanity.

Insanity to trust in and follow and bend your knee to anything other than Jesus Christ himself. 1 Peter 3, as we looked at in our last series, Peter goes on and says this, "Jesus has gone into heaven and it is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him." So, the Old Testament, the whole New Testament, they're all pointing to Christ being the one seated on the throne. Seated on the throne. And the one who is seated on the throne, just so you know, Jesus is not pacing around heaven worried about how history is going to turn out. He He's not I mean, read David's kingship.

I mean, this was a man who had all kinds of anxieties. This was a man who basically every other day would wake up nervous and anxious about what's going to happen. Now, he would have good days where he would say, "Everywhere I look, there's the Lord. He's my refuge. All I do is I just seek to dwell and and spend time with him all the days of my life." And then the next day, he'd wake up and he'd be like, "Lord, where are you?

My enemies are encamped around me. Everything's going crazy right now. Like literally every like people are throwing spears at me. My sons are trying to usurp my role. It's all chaos. Where are you?

Psalm 42, he even says, "His tears become his food." I mean, that's that's desperation. That's that's depression. Jesus is not a king like that. Jesus never worries. He never worries.

He never looks at your circumstances and wonders how's it going to work out for them. I mean, just think about how important this would be to the original audience of Hebrews. These Christians were suffering. Some of them have been publicly humiliated. Some of them have lost their property. They're experiencing pressure to abandon Jesus and return to something safer and more familiar.

And to be honest with you, it's it's a capital punishment for them to say Jesus is Lord because they're under Roman Empire rule. And the decree from the emperor is to declare Caesar is Lord. So, so when when Jesus's Lord is introduced into the mix, it is literally treason. It's going against what the world is saying at the time. And if you go against it, off with your head. So, they had everything to lose.

From their perspective, it might have looked like the enemies of Christ are winning. Rome looks powerful. The religious establishment of the Pharisees looks pretty powerful. I mean, they took Jesus out. Their persecutors look powerful. They might be wondering, "Where's Jesus in this?

Where's the perfect prophet? Where's the perfect priest? Where's the perfect king?" And Hebrews reminds them, "Let me tell you where he is. Let me tell you where he is to encourage your soul. He's seated at the right hand of the majesty on high.

That's what we need to hear when the world around us is crazy. We need to hear that the one we bend our knee to is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high and he is not worried. He's not worried. So if Jesus is our king, our response is simply to submit to him. To submit to him. The prophet says, "Listen to me."

The priest says, "Trust in me." And the king says,"Follow me." And Jesus is all of those things. And unlike every shadow that came before him, Jesus never leaves his office vacant. Moses died. Aaron died.

David died. Those are prophet, priests, and kings. And yes, Jesus died, too. But he was the only one that came back. Our prophet still speaks. Our prophet, our priest still intercedes on our behalf and our king still reigns.

And our king is not, as the world would say, a weak, sensitive, taken advantage of man back in the first century who was just a good pr uh prophet with principles. No, no, no. Our king is best described by John in Revelation 1:12-18. And I just want you to remember when before I read what he declares about Jesus, this is the John who was so close to Christ that he felt comfortable being at a dinner and laying back against the chest of Jesus. Like that's pretty intimate, right? I mean Tyler came over to hang out last night and watch the Texas Ohio State game and I can tell you that did not happen last night.

did not happen. But John had this type of intimacy with Christ. And John says this about Jesus. Revelation 1:12 through8. turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands.

And in the midst of the lampstands, there was one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe, and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white. Amen. Like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace.

and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. And when I saw him, it says, I did not run to him and lean back against his chest. He says, 'When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.' That's the only appropriate response when we see him for who he truly is as prophet, priest, and king. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not.

I am the first and the last. I am the living and the dead. I or I am the living one. I died and behold I am living. I am alive forever and I have the keys of death in Hades. All authority is his.

All authority is his. Church, this is the Jesus. Hebrews has spent three verses showing us. He's your prophet. So listen to him. He's your priest.

Trust him. And he's your king. So follow him. And for those who do believe this truth that Jesus, the King of Kings, invites his people to his table, that's the beautiful thing about Jesus being king is he's not a king who rules from a distance. He's a king who invites his subjects to come and feast at his table. And he sets us up for a way to do that here and now that paints the picture of the feast that we are going to be able to have when we are with him.

And a beautiful thing when we come to the Lord's supper, when we come to communion, it's actually a feast that Jesus when he's teaching the disciples about it, he actually tells them something that's really unique. He says he will not partake of it again until that day in which we are all gathered with him at the wedding feast of the lamb. So Jesus is waiting to feast with us. But he lets us do this as often as we do it in order to continue pointing us to that day in which and again I know the the sourdough bread tastes good. I get that. I know.

I mean, it's it's grape juice, right? But there will be a day where it is a fullon feast. And this is just pointing us to that. It's telling us, remember what Christ did for you that made it possible for you to get there. I love what Calvin says in regards to the table. He says, "It's a spiritual banquet."

A spiritual banquet. One of my old mentors used to say it's a spiritual potluck, but I like banquet a little bit better. Wherein Christ attests himself to be the lifegiving bread upon which our souls feed unto true and blessed immortality. Spurgeon adds to it, what does this supper mean? It means communion. communion with Christ and communion with one another because Christ makes it possible for us to come together as the body of Christ.

And so I want you to go ahead and stand with me. We don't come this morning to look for another word. We don't come to look for another sacrifice. We don't come to look for another ruler. Our prophet has spoken. Our priest offered the sacrifice once for all.

He broke his body and he shed his blood. And that's what this table represents for us this morning. We come then to remember, to receive, and to rejoice in the benefits of the sacrifice he's already made. We come together to join with him in his presence as we partake of this. and we thank him and we worship him for what he's accomplished for us. The sacrifice is finished.

It's why the table doesn't have an animal on it. It has bread and it has juice. That is a reminder of the once and for all sacrifice, Jesus himself. And the king invites us to the table. He invites all to the table if they simply do as Romans 10:9 says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. You will be saved."

And so if you've made that profession before and you've bent your knee to Jesus and you follow him as the Lord of your life and the King of Kings, then I invite you to come down, grab the elements, bring them back to your seat, and we will partake together at the end of the song.