All right, well, let me open us with a prayer and get started. Gracious God, Heavenly Father, we give you thanks and praise for this day. Thank you for the joy of knowing you. Thank you for the mystery of being adopted into that Eternal love of father son and spirit and so bless us as we gather now Help us to understand even a portion fraction of what that wonderful mystery is the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ We ask this in his name. Amen All right, well, just as a little review, and if you have the handout, you'll see some number of the passages are listed. But last time we talked about with this theme, the Christ before Christmas, the promise and the person of the coming Christ. So highlighted there is the promise and God worked faithfully and intentionally throughout history to prepare for the coming of Jesus. the Christ to save a people and to undo the effects of the fall in all creation. That was kind of the big picture plan. Genesis 315 which is not highlighted there but that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. So the story of the Bible in the course of history is the fulfilling of that promise and Jesus said in Luke 24 25 to 27 to Those disciples on the road to Emmaus Oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? and here's the key part in beginning with Moses and all the prophets he interpreted to them in all the scriptures and the things concerning himself. So Jesus himself understood that he was the fulfillment of what God had done in the past and what had been recorded in Moses and the prophets. So that's the promise we talked about. Then the person, think about who is it that was born. The highlight there is the eternal son who was truly God and enjoyed complete satisfaction in the Trinity, took on flesh and came into the world. Galatians 4, 4 and 5 says, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. So God sent a son. Jesus didn't become a son, it's very important. His birth was not the point at which he became a son, nothing in his ministry, no point in time was he appointed a son. There was always an eternal son of God and God exists for all eternity in three persons. And we did talk about this, so I just want to chew on this a little bit longer before we get into Prophet, Priest, and King tonight. But there was never a time when God did not exist as Father, Son, and Spirit. And there was never a time when God the Father was not Father, which means there was always a Son eternally. So if there was a time when God was not Father, his fatherhood, his fatherness would be something external or extraneous to his nature. Again, because that means he would have taken on that office, that role, that nature as a father. But he is an eternal father with an eternal son and there's an eternal Holy Spirit as well. But that means that's essential, inherent to the nature of God. Well, what does that matter? Well, really everything when it comes to Christmas and to our salvation. the eternal God, Father, Son, and Spirit, had eternal love, eternal completeness from all times. And it was, in a sense, out of that, even though when Jesus was born, he took on humanity, he didn't lose his deity, so there's this incredible sacrifice for him to let go of the prerogatives, the glory of And even in some sense, don't really know how, but some of the intimacy of what he shared with the father. So we think about Christmas and love, that love existed for all time and then also that becomes central to the gospel. God is love because God is Trinity. And the gospel is grace because it was a son that was given, the eternal son. And that shows, that demonstrates that salvation is completely a gift. So when we talk about the gospel is grace, well, We didn't add anything to that love relationship. We didn't bring, there's a handout in the back there Ken if you want to grab one or if someone wants to get it for you. If there wasn't an eternal son then in some sense salvation would have to be something we contributed and would be a work. but because God was complete and salvation was completely provided from God as a gift, we can think of it as grace. So one thing I came across just recently is that, and I didn't get to double check this, but apparently there is no word for salvation in other religions because there's not a trinity in other religions. And again, I know it's kind of abstract, but I think that's the heart of this, what I'm trying to say, of the person of the son and that Christmas was the son taking on flesh and being born. So I guess Islam, the closest thing is there's something like satisfaction. But again, that's work, you know, that is, that requires humanity bringing something to this love relationship. But because, again, a trinity of eternal love, salvation is an overflow, an outflow of that love, that means it's fully grace. Romans 1 talks about the gospel and the trinity. In the opening, Paul writes, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations. Jesus was declared to be the Son. It doesn't mean again that he achieved being the Son or somehow it was something that happened later. It just means that he was demonstrated to be the Son. Anyway, the first sermon that we have recorded after the time of the Bible begins with these words. Brethren, we ought, and I think this is in your handout, brethren, we ought so to think of Jesus Christ as of God, as of the judge of the living and the dead, and get this, and we ought not to belittle our salvation, for when we belittle him, we expect to receive little. So that's just an example of how the idea of Jesus as one with God, an eternal son was essential to salvation and an understanding of salvation. If we belittle him, we belittle the salvation we have from him. Anyway, I'll keep working on that. Really trying to get a better appreciation for the Trinity and how that eternal love relates to salvation. Anyway, tonight we're going to look at prophet, priest, and king, this threefold office of Jesus. Luke 2, verse 11, the familiar pronouncement of the birth of Jesus by the angels to the shepherds. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. So how wonderful those words. Roll off our lips, they're on our cards, they're in our carols. But the word Christ, you may have probably heard this, Christ means anointed, right? That's the idea of the title, that word Christ. So in a sense, the angels are saying the anointed one is born. And we might well wonder, Well, who is the anointed one, and why would that term be used to talk about Jesus? Well, in the Bible, there are three groups that were anointed. Prophets, priests, and kings. So when we think about this prophet, priest, and king category, it's not like some theologians were bored and thought, hey, how can we be more obscure? How can we take more time and develop more either funny phrases to talk about matters of faith? No, this is Christ means anointed. And you wonder, well, who's anointed? Why would the angels talk about? The anointed one, because of these groups, prophet, priest, and king. As we go through each one, I'll reference where they were anointed from Old Testament references. So prophet, 1 Kings 19, Elijah is told to anoint Elisha. And these are just samples you'll find with especially the kings and the priests, other elaborations of their anointing. 1 Chronicles 16.22 says, this phrase you probably may have heard before, touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm. So in that reference, prophets, anointed ones are yoked together. Now sometimes you'll hear this, like if someone's, you know, being criticized because of weird views or bad actions, it's a great defense mechanism for someone to say, touch not my, you know, the Lord's anointed. Well, not so much, right? I mean, they're not anointed in any ways like these scripture references are. Each of these will have a Westminster Shorter Catechism quote. So, catechism, Shorter Catechism, question number 24, how does Christ execute the office of a prophet? And the answer follows there, Christ executes the office of a prophet in revealing to us by his word and spirit the will of God for our salvation. So Christ is one revealing, think of prophets, we're going to think a lot about communication through his word and spirit, the will of God for salvation. Prophets were to speak God's Word, and they, by speaking God's Word, represented God, which is maybe why that 1 Chronicles 16 reference is there, touch not my anointed, ones do my prophets no harm, because these are the Lord's spokesmen. They are speaking on behalf of the Lord, and to attack them is to disrespect God. Isaiah 61, verse 1 says, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me. because the Lord has anointed me, there's that word, to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. So that's a word of the Lord, that's a prophetic message. We'll see there's other prophets and different messages that they give, but here is truly the mission of a prophet. to represent God speaking his word. Now Jesus claimed to be a prophet because his first sermon, the start of what we think of as his public ministry, the providence of God, that passage was read, it was probably an assigned reading, but what's important is after Jesus read it, what did he say? Today, this scripture is fulfilled. So Jesus understood himself to be the prophet that fulfilled what Isaiah 61, 1 and following says. When Jesus was setting his face to go to Jerusalem, the gospel of Luke, a big chunk of the gospel is about the journey to Jerusalem. But there's this pivot point where he, the Bible says, sets his face to go to Jerusalem and his disciples, his followers were concerned because they knew this would be a dangerous thing. So notice there, Luke 13, 33, how Jesus responded. He said, nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet, a prophet, Jesus speaking, should perish away from Jerusalem. So again, there's that self-understanding of Jesus as prophet. Smarter things about prophets, they had to be accurate, right? And if they weren't accurate, they got to go back and try again, right? No. If they were wrong, they died, right? So you have this reference in Deuteronomy 18, 19, and 20. But notice something's about this. Whoever does not listen to my words that he, the prophet, shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. The prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. And that goes on to say, how do you know if a prophet's not speaking in my name? Well, if it doesn't true. But notice this, so the prophets had to be right all the time. There was a penalty for them to speak false words. But what else do you see in that those couple verses? What about the people? They're under obligation too. God says, I'm going to require it of them, which I think sounds like your life. So the prophets had to get it right. But if a prophet spoke the word of God, the people had to listen. And if the people didn't listen, well, they too were under judgment. So there's a prophet is a very weighty thing. I know Jared had a wonderful sermon just a couple weeks ago about prophets and getting things right and wrong and things like that, but this is a weighty thing. And again, not just for the speaker, but for the hearer, which really, I mean, today, and again, Jared addressed this well, but we think about people who have a word, something that they believe is a prophecy of some sort, The burden's on them, but the burden's also on the person hearing, which is really a terrible burden. And who's to determine whether it's a true word or not? It's unfortunate, I know, for my own life, some people have given me, quote unquote, a word from the Lord that wasn't true, and I didn't know it at the time, but even before I knew it was true or not true, it wasn't a blessing, it was a burden because I was the one that had to, you know, then I had to be a discerner and a determiner of whether this should be received or not received. So anyway, prophets and the ones receiving the message had an obligation. Well early on fairly early on in the scriptures, there is this hope of a greater prophet, a coming prophet. And we find this and learn this through Moses. Moses was a type of prophet. He received God's word many times, right? So God released a great amount of God's word and the commandments that God revealed to him. He conveyed and he spoke those. So he functioned definitely in that role as a prophet. In some ways Moses is kind of a priest as well because he mediates at times and then a little bit of a type of a king because he rules and leads. But at the end of his life he gave a charge to the people to prepare to enter the promised land. And this is what he said, Deuteronomy 18, 18. I will raise up for them, this is for the people of God, a prophet like you, actually this is Moses recording the words of God, from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. So this prophet like Moses, a little bit like the Genesis 3.15 promise, the anticipation is who is it? be this one, this special prophet. Now, there were many Old Testament prophets. We have major prophets, like Isaiah and Jeremiah. We have minor prophets, like all kinds. Amos and Joel, many of the prophets have their names attached to Old Testament books. And some do not. Elijah and Elisha do not have their names as the author of an Old Testament book. So there's a diversity of prophets. spanning time. And they, on the one hand, foretold events that were going to happen to the people of God, things that would take place in the future. A lot of times when you hear the word prophets and prophecy, that's one of the main things we kind of gravitate to and think about. But the prophets sometimes are also called covenant lawyers. That is, they were declaring the terms of the covenant God's people had with God and the fact that they weren't often living up to those covenants, promises, and those stipulations. So there's both kind of this, what's sometimes described as foretelling, which is talking about the future, but also foretelling, telling it like it is, saying, hey, if you continue on this path, you are going to face consequences. So with all those diversities of prophets and even types of prophecies though, the spotlight shines on Jesus. We've already seen his own understanding of himself as a prophet. And he is the ultimate prophet, the greater prophet, that promise made to Moses. And he's a greater prophet for a couple reasons. He speaks the Word truly and completely, but he is even the Word. Christmas is the Word in flesh, the Word made flesh. And when you think of that, the Word, Sometimes we sing about the Word and read about the Word becoming flesh in the Christmas story. Well, that's really highlighting this office of Jesus as prophet. So John 1, 1, familiar words. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And John continues in the gospel, and the Word became flesh. And also, Jesus is not only the word in flesh, Jesus understands that his word is life and only his word is life. So in John 5, 25, it says, Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son also to have life in himself. So Jesus is, he is the word, he's the word made flesh, his word is life. So if you were to just pause there and think about what would we lack in our knowledge of Jesus if we were not given this legacy of Old Testament prophets, especially that promise of a greater prophet. It would be diminished, wouldn't it? We wouldn't probably really appreciate who Jesus is, as we should. We probably wouldn't really understand our salvation. if we were just to kind of lop off this aspect of Jesus as the ultimate prophet. And, you know, we talked last week about, you know, where's the Christmas joy? Could it be that some of what is lacking in Christmas joy, we're not seeing the anointed? This as the celebration of the birth of the anointed one, the Christ, and he is that prophet. And you think about all the drama of history too, certainly true of the priests and the kings. These prophets had a real mission. They were dealing with actual events and that was important. But all of those events, even though they had real point-in-time significance, also were part of this bigger plan to help you and believers of all times, but you, including you, so that you can say Merry Christmas, so you can say Christ is Lord, so we know whatever it is, that whole ongoing History, why all the years? Why the centuries and all these ups and downs? Well, they were real people, they really sinned, they were really responsible for their sin, but the mighty sovereign hand of God was using all of that and the messages of the prophets so that we could one day celebrate that ultimate prophet. Well, the other anointed, another anointed office is the priest and priesthood. Exodus 29 is a lengthy description about Aaron and his sons being anointed to serve as priests. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, question number 25. How does Christ execute the office of a priest? And the answer is Christ executes the office of a priest in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God and making continual intercession for us. So this is just a wonderful aspect of Jesus and his ministry as the anointed priest. Think of him offering up of himself He is the sacrifice, the once for all final sacrifice to which all the other sacrifices pointed to satisfy divine justice. And not only that, to reconcile us to God. He dealt with the issue of justice, but reconciling and this other aspect of making intercession is to mediate. And that was a key part of the role of the priesthood. They mediated between God and man. Priests came from the line of Levi. Aaron and his family were served officially in the tabernacle. And then later, Levitical priests would serve in the temple. And they had different duties. The tabernacle was in the wilderness, and it was portable. There were different roles of priests. And even when the temple was built in Jerusalem, different priests would have different roles. We think of the priesthood and Jesus as priest. We want to think about the whole scope of that. I think I'd highlight it later, but just mention it now. They dealt with the sacrifices. worship. They dealt with determining whether someone was clean or unclean. There was the temple and all of that. So when we think of the priesthood and Jesus as the anointed priest, we can think of all the different ways that the Old Testament helped us understand who Jesus would be in his life and in his ministry through those different kind of areas. Hebrews 2, 17 and 18, wonderful passage about Jesus as our great high priest. It says, therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. So this is that idea of the priest making intercession. He's not only in that position, he has that capacity, he has that sensitivity. And the priest chosen to do that and have that role in their ministry, Jesus, The eternal Son of God took on humanity, took on flesh, and in that role, as God and man, became the perfect priest. Sin had to be covered to minister effectively, and that was true. The sacrifices had to be without blemish, but so too the priests. Now the priests weren't perfect, were they? They were sinful and they were flawed. So as they did their ministry, they had to atone for themselves. And Exodus 29 verse 4 and then 10 says, you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. They didn't take a shower that day, did they? They were just a little, had some hygiene issues. Well, maybe they did, but that's probably not the reference. This was a ceremonial washing because as they are just coming into the tent of meeting. They're going to do this as their ministry. They needed to be cleaned. And then verse 10, then you shall bring the bull before the tent of meeting. Aaron and his son shall lay their hands on the head of the bull and goes on to talk about the sacrifice. So just as the priest would do this for people and show that the animal sacrifice, the guilt of people was being transferred on that animal that died in their place. Even the priests, before they could do that, had to have it done for themselves. In fact, the Hebrews, Book of Hebrews, goes into great detail about how this was, you know, helpful. It was a powerful image, but it was just so darn perpetual. It would never get done because the sacrifices had to be made continually for the people. But even the priests, and even if you got a clean priest, what happened? According to Hebrews, well, he would die, so he had to get another priest. So Jesus is the great priest because he didn't have to have his sin covered, removed, but also because he lives. He has fulfilled that office. So that kind of cleanliness, we certainly get that from the animal itself, sacrificed, the Passovers, powerful description in Exodus 12 about choosing the lamb without blemish. And then that was repeated by God's people every year, every year at the time of Passover. They would have a lamb without blemish and other ongoing sacrifices too. But that Passover was so powerful because that was when they remembered their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. So the idea is they're Their liberation, their calling, their identity as a people of God came through and was part of a sacrifice of a pure, innocent substitute for them. 1 Peter 1, verses 18 and 19. says regarding the animal, you were ransomed from the feudal ways, inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things, such as silver or gold, because that's just cheap stuff, right? Silver and gold, who needs that? But with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. Priests were from a different lineage than Jesus, so this gets a little kind of curious for people. Okay, how can he be the fulfillment of a great high priest? He's not from the tribe of Levi, he's from the tribe of Judah. Well, the Bible itself gave an example and a provision for a priest of a different lineage. In fact, that actually becomes kind of special because, again, remember those human priests You could say, well, they just had the job because they were born into it, and then they died anyway. But we do have this example of an Old Testament priest named Melchizedek. And he is not like Jesus, not from the tribe of Levi, and like Jesus, his whole ancestry is unknown. from a human standpoint, Melchizedek was. So anyway, Hebrews 6, 19 and 20 says this, we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the place behind the curtain, it's the Holy of Holies, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Great image of Christ as the high priest, and again, just that idea he is truly the anointed priest, even though, humanly speaking, he is not from that line of Levi. So a priest, again, means everything related to a priesthood, the sacrifices, the worship, the temple, and Jesus. Jesus fulfilled them all. And no, we don't have quite as explicit a statement, maybe. I don't know. Maybe you can think of some things of Jesus saying he's a priest like we have him saying, implying he's a prophet. But notice this passage in Matthew 12, 6 to 8. Jesus said, I tell you something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would have not condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." Well, Jesus is making some extraordinary claims there, and they can, especially the temple reference, definitely ties to the priesthood. And once again, you know, we could pause and just think, maybe reflect this week, what would we miss? if we didn't have this understanding of the priests and their role in the Old Testament and Jesus as a great high priest. Again, all the things they went through, all those priests, their ups and downs, I mean, that was real stuff. And yet, once again, in the sovereign plan of God and the grace of God, a lot of that would happen now. for you so that when you pray to Jesus and you think of Christ as your salvation and your savior, you can understand a portion more, a degree more of him as the one who sacrificed for you, as the one who mediates between you and God. And if you didn't think of it before, think of it now. Probably just about every prayer you pray, how do you end? In Jesus' name. What you're doing is you are assuming, hopefully appreciating, but at least you're assuming his role as your mediator, as your great high priest. He is the one who makes your prayer acceptable to God the Father. He is that mediator. Well, finally, one more. We'll think about the king. The king was anointed. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of kings, the office of kings in the scriptures. 1 Samuel 10, Saul is anointed. 1 Samuel 16, David is anointed. On and on it goes. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 26 says, how does Christ execute the office of a king? And I love this. Christ executes the office of a king in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us. So what's interesting is, and it goes on there, we'll talk about it, but just, you know, when you think of a king and how you need a king, a lot of times you think, well, We need the king to get the other guys. And what the catechism is saying, no, you need the king to get you. Because guess what? A lot of ways the problem is with you. And so this King Jesus is going to deal with you. Now he's going to get to your other enemies and stuff, but he subdues us to himself, ruling us and defending us. restraining and conquering all his and our enemies. So Jesus does rule us. And he, again, protects and preserves us from our enemies. And our greatest enemy, of course, is the evil one, Satan. And Christ preserves faithfully us in our eternal life against that adversary. Judges 21-25 gives you a picture of what life is like with no king. It says, In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. So without a king there's just this sense of lawlessness and just things being unruly. Now it gets confusing because in some ways the people are judged for having a king but it was really more not the principle of having a king, but they wanted their king and their time to be like all the other nations around them. And so that was where in some ways where God's judgment is against them regarding their longing for a king. So the king had a role of preserving and protecting people. We think of David as the example of the greatest king in the Old Testament. And that's a couple of reasons for that. He led at one of the high points of the kingdom, a time of peace. Solomon would continue that and would enjoy peace and even probably greater prosperity. But David had the time of peace and also was described as a man after God's own heart. When David wanted to build a house for God, a permanent temple instead of the more portable tabernacles and other less desirable structures where their worship was taking place, God replied with these words in 2 Samuel 7, 16. It says, your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. So in a sense, David says, you know, I want to build you a house, God. And God says, no, David, I'm going to build you a house. And that's a reference to the lineage and the offspring of David, who would be an eternal king. That promise is repeated in the Psalms. Notice Psalm 132, verse 11. The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back. One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. The problem is, you know how the story goes, David's descendants didn't turn out so well, humanly speaking, at least immediately speaking. Now that was not a failure on God's part, and even human failures did not thwart the plan of God. But instead, all along, God intended to bring a different kind of king. And you think, well, that's just kind of rewriting history. No, even in the scriptures themselves, we can see an anticipation that what this promise of an offspring of David to rule forever already begins to sound different than a regular human king. In fact, I need my Bible here. So I didn't print these verses, but let's Let's turn to Psalm 110 and then Psalm 2. That's working backwards. So the opening verses of Psalm 110. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand. until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power and holy garments. From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Well, that starts out as an affirmation of a special kind of king, a lord talking to another lord. But then, where does it end up? We're back at Melchizedek. Where did that come from? Well, this king is more than a king. This is going to be more than an earthly kingdom and a human reign. So even in the Old Testament, there is this awareness that God's, through human kings and the promise of another king, is trying to help people get beyond thinking of just those human categories of power and military might. Power is included, but again, it's a different kind of power. Let's turn to Psalm 2 and then pause there. And I'll just read the whole thing. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, there's that word again, saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Here's the description of the Lord's anointed or king as the true and right leader of all. But again, you start to see these beams of light shining through what you would understand as a human king in human categories. But it's more. Now you have the image of the sun. And there's real power. There's real authority. It's going to have human earthly consequences. But again, when Jesus shows up and people are like, you know, disappointed almost. You know, is this the time? Are you the one? You know, all this sense like we were expecting that Psalm 2 king or that Psalm 110 king or Psalm 2 Samuel 7 kind of king. But again, even as you look at those passages, you see that they're pointing through the office of the anointed human king to something greater that God is doing. And Jesus fulfills that. So Jesus has an eternal kingdom. He's risen from the grave. He's earned the role of the Lord. We think of that idea of the ascension. After Jesus completed all of his mission and ministry, he was authenticated and enthroned, and in his office now, reigning, that's the royal office. Think of King Jesus and what this means for you. It's because he is the promised anointed king. 1 Chronicles 15, verses 25 and 26, It said, for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. So once again, we could pause and think about what wouldn't we know? about Jesus if the Old Testament had not prepared the way for the coming Christ through the office of a king. And even the failed and corrupt kings. There were many more bad than good, and even the good weren't all that good, right? And you think, well, how are these kings supposed to be a model and a preparation for the ultimate king? Well, even in their their bad behavior, even in their failings, the anticipation is almost growing greater. Like, when is this true king going to come? When is the king who is just and good and brings peace, when is that king going to come? And so when Jesus comes, then there is the fulfillment and the hope. And that's the good news. The opening verses of Hebrews, I think I printed those for you. Maybe that's just worth reflecting on this week. Just think of how the images, offices of prophet, priest, and king are all included in those couple verses. And then also, Luke 19 has a very interesting combination of prophet, priest, and king, but not in that order. So in Luke 19, we have the story of the triumphal entry, and Jesus is coming into the city of Jerusalem to start a Passover week. And there's, of course, the great response of people giving praise. It's striking of how wonderful it is. Also, it's striking for how short it is. It just doesn't last. But, you know, it's interesting. for at least a moment, an appreciation, a recognition of Jesus as King. But then in Luke, there is, shortly after that, a pronouncement of judgment over Jerusalem. Remember what we said about the prophets, that the prophets had to be right, and if they weren't right, there was a consequence. When they were right, there was a consequence for those that didn't obey. So that pronouncement of judgment over Jerusalem is a prophetic office, or at least Jesus, functioning as a prophet. And then, where does he go from there? But he goes to the temple and cleanses it. So just in that drama of the getting towards the apex and finale of the life and ministry of Jesus, he's going to live out that prophet, priest, and king. Of course, you could think of him dying on the cross as that kind of priest function, not as the priest but as the sacrifice. So, Jesus is prophet, priest, and king. And every time someone says, Merry Christmas, Every time you see a card that has Christmas in it, don't miss the Christ. Because Christ means anointed. And anointed means prophet, priest, and king. Those again were the categories, the groups that were anointed. The main ones, I don't know, you can do some research and think of anyone else that would have been anointed, sometimes maybe anointed for a short-term ministry, but definitely the ongoing work of God in history was to anoint the prophets, the priests, and the king. So again, Christmas is about the anointed, and we, by God's grace, hopefully can appreciate Christmas, the nature of Jesus, the marvel and wonder of our salvation as we think of prophet, priest, and king.