Please turn once again to Benjamin Keech's Catechism, question number 27. We're on page 242 in our blue confession booklets, if you have them. I've entitled this morning's message, Our Christ Who Reveals. This morning's sermon topic will be on Jesus as he fulfills the role of prophet. Last message we saw that Jesus was fulfilling a covenant of works for his elect, and he did that by fulfilling particular offices and duties. Jesus came to earth to work on our behalf. He is called over and over again a servant. That's because his entire existence, both in heaven and on earth, was and is and will forever be to serve mankind, and he serves us in the offices of prophet, priest, and king. Those are his offices, and under those titles, we see a mediator who suffers both in his living and in his dying to earn righteousness for his people and pay the debt that our unrighteousness has earned for us. He is our mediator, standing between us and God, reconciling us to one another, and he mediates as a prophet and as a priest and as a king. And as we saw last time, these duties that he accepted from the Father are duties he not only did on earth, but they're duties that he continues to do in his glorified state in heaven. And Jesus serves us in both his sufferings as well as in his glory. And so these are duties that he will continue to do even into eternity. On earth, he was a suffering servant in earning life for us, and by paying our death penalty. And in heaven, He intercedes for us still as a mediator who brings our flawed and imperfect gifts to the Father. He is the channel by which all human offerings must pass through to get to the Father. And all of this is needed because of sin. Adam's sin in the garden plunged us into a state of sinfulness, and so mankind needs a mediator in order to commune with the Holy God. We need someone to stand with us as we stand before the Father, and that's what Jesus does. He brings the Father's desires to us as a prophet. He brings our desires and our offerings to the Father as a priest, and he fights our spiritual battles with us and for us as our King. Our topic last week was to prove, in a sense, that Jesus actually served as a prophet, priest, and king. And we saw that the Bible was very clear in naming Jesus by these titles or offices. We saw explicitly in the Word of God that Jesus was to be raised up as a prophet like Moses, and a high priest like Melchizedek, and a king like David. And then when we saw, then we saw that the New Testament looked back upon these men and named them as types and shadows of our Savior. So the Bible was very clear that Jesus held these offices. And then we also saw that we could learn much about how Jesus does what he does simply by studying the people that the Bible calls his types, his shadows. That's another study, but it really is a fascinating one. To study Jesus in the light of his types and shadows is really where we find the depth of our Reformed theology. Last week I mentioned that the Bible really gives us permission to glean from these Old Testament examples as we try to understand what Jesus actually did for us, and that's exactly what these next three catechism questions are going to show us. Question 26 told us that Jesus is a prophet, priest, and king. And questions 27 through 29 will explain to us how he actually does these things for us, as he fulfills these roles. So that's our topic for this morning's message. Question 27 says, it asks, how does Christ execute the office of a prophet? And the answer is, Christ executes the office of a prophet in revealing to us, by his word and spirit, the will of God for our salvation. The summary for today's message can be found in your bulletins. It says, in this catechism question, we see Christ, our mediator, as one who reveals. Jesus' role as prophet is one of revealing the will of God to mankind, especially pertaining to our salvation. All right, with that short introduction, let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you again for bringing us together as Abadi, we thank you that we are complete today for the first time in several weeks. Lord, we thank you for the safe travels that brought everyone back to us. And Lord, we just ask you now to bless our time in your word. We don't take this time lightly. Lord, we realize what gift we have in holding the word of God in our hands. We understand the gift that you sent your son, the word of God incarnate, to dwell among us and we realize What a gift that is and what a gift of knowledge and revelation that is. And so help us, dear Lord, to take that seriously and help us to look to you in giving of us your Holy Spirit that we might understand these things and that the blindness might go away and we might be given eyes to see and ears to hear. We just pray, Lord, that you would be our teacher this morning, that your Holy Spirit would work within us all. and that we might honor you and please you in everything that we offer to you today in our worship. So we thank you again for bringing us together. We thank you for all that this worship contains. May our praises be sweet in your ears, and we just pray, Lord, that you'd bless us in our time. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Okay, Christ our prophet. How does Jesus execute the office of a prophet? First, let's once again define the word prophet. What is a prophet? I touched on this last time, but the most common sense of the word is often understood as someone who prophesies about the future, right? That's how most people think of a prophet. Someone who knows the future and then shares that knowledge or reveals that knowledge with the world. And the Bible says you'll know the true prophet when what they foretell actually comes true, right? That's Jeremiah 28 in verse nine. When the word of the prophet comes to pass, the prophet will be known as one whom the Lord has truly sent. So a prophet reveals something future or something hidden from the rest of us. That verse is certainly speaking of future events when it says, when the word of the prophet comes to pass. But what we see is more than just a prophet speaking. We see the prophet speaking the words of God. It says, he is someone whom the Lord has truly sent. So he's bringing words from God to earth, and he's revealing the will of God to the world. That's why the Old Testament prophets so often begin their sermons with, thus saith the Lord, right? But there's also more to this office than a prophet just speaking about future events. The prophet's job is to reveal spiritual truths to the people. The prophet reveals sin and the consequences of sin. He reveals the way of repentance from sin. We see that over and over again in the Old Covenant. Of course, the prophet even reveals the promises of God. We might say they reveal the whole counsel of God, including the law and the gospel. And Jesus does both of these things, doesn't he? He prophesies his own death and resurrection. He prophesies about future judgment and the destruction of the world in the last days. We read about that in our opening reading. At the same time, he proclaims the law and the gospel through his preaching and parables. And he reveals the hidden mysteries within the Holy Scriptures. Those are all the roles of the prophet. In our outlines, you'll notice that I've broken down his role in the ways that the word of God is revealed to us by Jesus Christ. First by his word spoken, then by the word written, and finally by himself as the word of God incarnate. So let's first think about Jesus as the prophet who reveals the word in spoken form. Jesus reveals the will of God by speaking. He is sent by God to bring a message to his people. Please turn with me to John 4. John chapter 4, starting in verse 19. This is where Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well really demonstrates this part of his ministry. So I want to read it and study it for a moment. So after a conversation with him at the well, this woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. So this woman perceives that Jesus is a prophet just by listening to him speak. I'm sure she sensed the truth of his speech, just like we see in Jeremiah 28 in verse 9. There was something authentic that she could sense, and this really validated the idea for her that he must be sent by God. She could tell that what he was saying was truth. The truth is something both believers and unbelievers can sense. They can perceive it. Those who are perishing will reject it, while those who are being saved will embrace it. But I think there was something tangible that she sensed and witnessed in Jesus. She knew of the Old Testament prophets. And she sensed that she was experiencing something great like that. And now listen to the rest of this passage, continuing in verse 20 through verse 43. And notice the work of Jesus is revealing the will of God. Verse 20 says, the woman says, our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Now listen to the prophet Jesus. He said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. Now there's an example of what? Jesus is prophesying of future events, right? Just like the Old Testament prophets. And he's doing it simply by speaking. He's revealing something true about the future when the worship of the people of God will no longer be tied to a temple in a specific location, but to an inner worship of the soul. The reason is because true salvation, something only typified or symbolized in the Old Covenant, comes with the indwelling Spirit of God in us. We don't go to the dwelling place of God in Jerusalem because in the New Covenant, God dwells in us. We are the temple of God. And Jesus is revealing that, not only by prophesying of a future covenant, he's also revealing something about true religion. Worship won't be tied to a building anymore because it's a spiritual thing and a heart thing and a personal thing. It's not about outward disciplines and ceremonies like it was in the Old Testament. It's really about faith alone and a spiritual worship that comes out of us from the Spirit dwelling in us. Now he doesn't say all that here, but what we do see is that he's breaking down her false religion so he can build it back up on a new foundation. He's tearing down the idea of a temple being the center of worship, something completely unheard of for the Jew and for the Samaritan alike. And that's what a prophet does. Then Jesus goes on to say, you worship what you do not know, We know, we Jews, know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. Now notice this, Jesus is starting to correct her false religion. He's calling the religion of the Northern Kingdom what it was. And he's telling her that salvation comes from the Jews or the old covenant scriptures, not from the religion invented by Jeroboam in the early days of the divided kingdom. That was her religion. And Jesus as a prophet wasn't just telling of future events. He was correcting false belief and pointing her to true new covenant religion. He says true religion has no temple and true religion is of the Jews. Meaning he's sending her to her Jewish scriptures. That's where she needs to look for salvation. Then Jesus tells her what this looks like. He says, but the hour is coming, and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to Him, I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When He comes, He will tell us all things. She's speaking of a prophet. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. He is the prophet who is coming to tell us all things. This is a pretty amazing passage, really. And then he says, true worship is done in spirit and in truth. So it's not in a building in Jerusalem, that's first, but it is of the Jews, and it's also something spiritual and true, he says. What does this mean? In spirit, it just means that this worship is something more than outward things. It's more than just blood sacrifices, and it's more than outward physical things we do with our hands and our lips, because it's spiritual, and the spirit is something other than the body. God is a spirit, and we are to worship with our spirits. We must worship with more than our lips and our hands. Worship is much more than slaughtering lambs and offering them to God in a temple made with human hands. True worship is the dying of the self and the offering of the whole being, body, mind, heart, and all to God. So that's first, our worship is spiritual and our offerings are spiritual. But more than that, our worship must be done in the Spirit, in the sense that we are dependent upon the Holy Spirit. There's no true worship apart from the Holy Spirit. That's why the Catechism says Jesus reveals by His Word and Spirit. The Holy Spirit is central to the ministry of Jesus, and He is central to our worship as well. Even Jesus didn't preach without the help of the Holy Spirit, and we can't even listen to preaching without His help. Same goes with our praise and our ordinances and our prayers. Nothing we do in the worship service is worthy of God unless it's done in the Spirit, which is why we ask humbly for the Spirit to be our teacher and our guide in all things spiritual. We need him to do the work within us in order for the obedience and offerings that we bring to be worthy. So in the new covenant, we worship in spirit, Jesus says. So we see that worship no longer centers in the temple in Jerusalem. Worship is found in the Old Testament scriptures written by the prophets of old. And now we see that worship is something spiritual. It's inward and it's done as the Holy Spirit of God, who indwells the believer, enables him or her to worship properly. So the future new covenant worship is spiritual, Jesus says. We will worship in spirit. And he also says that we offer all of that in truth, in spirit and truth, meaning apart from hypocrisy. and with sincerity and according to the scriptures. Worshipping in truth means that we truly believe in what we worship. That's part of it. We are not deceived and we are not pretending. But it also means that we are to worship God as he truly is. Worshiping in truth means we see God as He is revealed in the scriptures and worship Him according to those scriptures. He's not an idol that we've created. He's the God of the Bible and we worship Him as He is and as He has told us to worship Him. Spirit and truth is central to proper worship, as opposed to the carnal, earthly, bodily, and outward worship of the Jews and the Samaritans. The religion of hands and lips, without broken and contrite hearts, both the Jews and the Samaritans had largely forgotten God and were worshiping apart from the Spirit and apart from truth. They needed a prophet to tell them all things. But what we're seeing is Jesus revealing that there's a revival coming too. He's prophesying of this new era, an era of the new covenant when true worship will be revealed and practiced. And he does this as our prophet. Verse 27 continues in John 4. And at this point, his disciples came and they revealed that he talked with a woman, yet no one said, what do you seek or why are you talking with her? The woman then left her water pot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, and listen to this, come see a man who told me all things that I ever did. That's what she was looking for in the expected Messiah, right? And then she says to them, could this be the Christ? Then they went out of the city and came to him. So she believes that he's the Christ because of the principle we read about in Jeremiah 28, verse 9. What he said about her she knows had come to pass. And so she knew that he was a true prophet of the Lord. He was sent by God. In the meantime, his disciples urged him, saying, Rabbi, eat. And now listen as the prophet reveals something more. But he said to them, I have food to eat of which you do not know. Therefore the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him anything to eat? Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Again, this is the role of the prophet, right? He reveals the will of him who sent me. And Christ, the true prophet, reveals the will of God by doing the will of God. This is the mark of true belief also. of true faith. Jesus is teaching us that if your life leaves you empty or unsettled or unfulfilled, in other words, if you are hungry, it's because you're not eating of the will of God. You're not doing the will of God. This is a part of the change we see in the New Covenant. Eating isn't a matter of sacrificial lambs and unleavened bread anymore. It's spiritual. Those things only pointed to the spiritual. And so to be spiritually fed requires eating the food of God, which is obedience. Do you want to turn your life around in a moment? Repent and believe the gospel and begin doing as He commands and you will understand what it means to be full and fed. Now what does this look like? Jesus says in verse 35, Do you not say there are still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest. Is he looking at real fields? Is he looking out at the world? And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored, speaking of former prophets, and you have entered into their labors. We are all prophets. Jesus is once again revealing the will of God for all of us to sow and to reap the fruits of the gospel. We are all prophets in the new covenant. and all of us are to sow the word of God. We've entered into the labors of the Old Testament prophets just like Jesus did. We're all supposed to speak the word of God and share the word of God, spread the law and the gospel and the will of God to all of mankind. Lift up your eyes, Jesus says, and look at the fields, for they are already white with the harvest. Look at the work to do. That's our role as we walk through this life. We are to speak the truth. We're to correct false doctrines and point people to true worship. And we do it as those who follow the perfect example of our Lord. John continues in verse 39, and many of the Samaritans of that city believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified, he told me all things I ever did. He told me all things. So when the Samaritans had come to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days, and many more believed because of his word. Then they said to the woman, now we believe not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard him, and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world. Why, because he revealed himself, to them in the office of a prophet. That's why. Verse 43 says, now after the two days he departed from there and went to Galilee. So we see that he is a prophet who speaks. How about Jesus as a prophet who reveals through the written word? The entire word of God, the Bible, speaks of Jesus Christ. That's the center of everything we read in our Bibles. And Jesus teaches us how to find him there. That's also the role of a prophet. He helps us navigate his Bible by teaching us how to read it and how to find him in it. And that's the role of the Old Testament prophet. That's the role of Jesus as a prophet. That was the role of the apostles. And that's the role of the gospel preacher. And now turn with me to John 7, beginning in verse 37. I don't think it was a coincidence that Terry and Keith chose a hymn based on John 7, 37 this morning. It's amazing how the Lord works. In this passage, I want us to see the scriptures being used by the prophet of God. There are dozens of really good proofs for this, but I'm going to stick with John's gospel for now. So notice the central role of the written word of God in the office of the prophet. John writes, on the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, now listen to this, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. You know, let's just stop there for a moment. Jesus is doing what here? He's teaching from the scriptures, isn't he? He's telling us what the scriptures really mean. The prophet proclaims and reveals the true meaning of the scriptures. And the scriptures speak in metaphors, and the prophet, Jesus, breaks down the metaphor. He quotes the Old Testament, and he says, are you thirsty? Believe in me and I will quench your spiritual thirst and revive you with new life and it'll be the Holy Spirit that will come into your heart with abundance and make you new. He's teaching from the scriptures. He's proclaiming and revealing the mysteries of the old covenant scriptures and that's what he will do for us throughout all of eternity. John then goes on to say, therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, truly this is the prophet. Others said, this is the Christ. And so they expected one who would tell them all things, like the woman at the well, and he had come and they recognized him. They didn't call him a prophet, they called him the prophet, the holy one that they were waiting for. But now listen to this, because there were some skeptics among them who were thinking through their Bibles, and this is really important when dealing with a prophet, says, but some said, will the Christ come out of Galilee? And this is really a good question. Jesus, so we have some skeptics in the room who are really questioning this whole idea that Jesus was the savior. And they said, does he really fit with everything that's been prophesied about him? So Jesus' ability to teach from the scriptures had set him apart as someone who was unlike anyone else that they'd ever known. And they're literally starting to think this is the promised savior of the world. That's what they meant by calling him the prophet. Not just a prophet like John the Baptist, but the prophet, meaning the Messiah, the Christ. But notice also that they're now comparing the prophet to the word of God. That's a really good thing. Just like the prophet is known by the things that come to pass, they're also known by how well they follow the scriptures. And so they begin to debate if the great expected prophet can come from Galilee because the prophet has to match the prophecies about him. And this is really important because if Jesus doesn't match up to the Old Testament prophecies about him, he cannot be the Christ. It's that simple. John goes on, has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem where David was? So there was a division among the people because of him. Now some of them wanted to take him, but no one laid hands on him. Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, why have you not brought him? The officers answered, no man ever spoke like this man. Then the Pharisees answered them, are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law, or the scriptures, is accursed. Now listen to this. Nicodemus, he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them, said to them, Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing? They answered and said to him, Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee. So this is really just amazing. The rulers and Pharisees are judging him based on the fact that they know him as a Galilean. And on face value, they're right. They recognize that the scriptures foretold where the Lord would come from. But Nicodemus reminded them that they don't know where he came from. They've never looked into where he actually came from, did they? The prophet of God, the Messiah, would come out of Bethlehem, and of course we know that he did in fact come out of Bethlehem, and the scriptures document that. So the Pharisees are referring to Micah 5 in verse 2, which says, but you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. So this is the Christ. the incarnate son of God, who is the expected prophet, priest, and king. He is from everlasting because he is God. And this is the one to be raised up. And so what we see is that even Jesus is subject to the scriptures, like every other prophet must be. If he is to be considered sent from God, he must be proven to be a prophet of God, bringing nothing but the truth. Just like every preacher needs to be subject to the scriptures, every sermon needs to be compared to the Bible. And that's how we determine a good teacher from a false teacher. And so now these early followers of the Lord needed to find out where Jesus came from. And that's exactly what Nicodemus is reminding them. They need to look into him before they judge him to be a false teacher, because as we know, he actually was born in Bethlehem, wasn't he? Born in a manger in Bethlehem. It's not where he grew up, or where he lived, but it's where he was born, just as the scriptures foretold. So he is a prophet, revealing the will of God through his spoken word, and bringing the word of God to earth. And He is a prophet revealing the will of God through the writings of the Old Testament prophets. And all of this brings us to who He truly is. He is the Lord of the Old Testament. He is the incarnate Word of God. As prophet, He reveals the will of God in His person and in His Word. Jesus truly is the revelation of God on earth. He is God in the flesh. How better to reveal God to mankind. Jesus will reveal God by coming as God in the flesh. John says in chapter 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Turn with me to John chapter 1 if you would. Let's listen to the whole chapter, chapter 1. He was in the beginning with God, continuing in verse three. It says, all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. Think revelation here. He's revealing light from darkness. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. That's a metaphor for the way he reveals truth as a prophet, right? He dispels falsehood and he shines with truth. Verse six says, there was a man sent from God whose name was John, John the Baptist. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. It's another word talking about a revelation, to know. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Jesus' whole existence on earth, his whole ministry was to reveal God in himself. He was to be a light in a place darkened with unbelief and ignorance. And yet we read that they didn't comprehend the light. And so it says they did not receive Him. Well, let's just think about why this is. It says the only way to receive Jesus Christ and comprehend His message is by the will of God. This is so important. You can't trust in your life or your intellect or your willpower to believe You must trust in the Lord Himself to give you understanding and belief. That's the role of the Holy Spirit. Remember what Jesus said in John chapter 7, drink of Christ, believe in Him, and your heart will be a spring of holy water. It will be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Belief comes not of the will of man, but of God, it says. That's the only way a person can believe. Even the greatest preacher to ever live, the incarnate Son of God Himself, the Word of God, required the Spirit of God working in the hearts of His hearers to make them believe. Doesn't that speak to the hardness of the human heart? It's amazing, really. It's totally amazing. And it's the same for all of us. Whether we believe already and struggle with remaining unbelief, or whether we sit in a church wanting to believe and can't, we need God to let His light shine brightly into our hearts. We need God to give us belief so that then the person of Jesus, the very Word of God, can be received into our hearts and then begin to transform us completely as He promises. This is so important. Verse 14 goes on to say, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. He was revealed. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. More revelation of this God that we worship. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. Jesus has another known and accepted prophet in John the Baptist, a person everyone believed was sent by God, who is now validating what they were all seeing. And think about what else this means. Why does John say Jesus was before him when talking about his younger cousin? Because John knows that the one who comes before him is God in the flesh. the eternal word of God, and the great prophet raised up like Moses. Okay, so Christ is a prophet who reveals the will of God by his own spoken word. He does it by explaining the written word, and he does it as the word of God himself. He is our prophet. Now let's move on and ask ourselves one more question. What is it, according to the catechism, that Jesus reveals? Listen again to our question and answer. It says, how does Christ execute the office of a prophet? The answer is Christ executes the office of prophet in revealing to us, by his word and spirit, the will of God for our salvation. By his word and his Holy Spirit, he reveals the most important message mankind could ever come to understand. And that's the will of God for our salvation. That's exactly what we've seen him do throughout the whole study today, isn't it? He is revealing the way, the truth, and the life. His ministry as prophet is one of teaching mankind about the salvation offered in Him alone. I keep going back to Ephesians 1 and verse 10 as the foundation of our study of God's decrees, where we read that the will of God is to gather together in one all things in Jesus Christ. both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him. That's the will of God. That's what Jesus came to proclaim to us. And that's what He was doing for the woman at the well. He was gathering. That's what He continues to do until the end of the age. And that's what He will continue to do throughout all of eternity. He will reveal that He will gather us and gather us and gather us forever. And I think He will do that by speaking to us and calling us for all eternity. And I think He will spend eternity teaching us and declaring to us the glory of the Father and the will of God in our salvation. I think we will spend eternity learning about the truths of God. And I think we will never have a perfect and complete knowledge of the Father because He is so infinite. And if that's the case, then we will need a prophet to teach us about Him for all of eternity. And that's Jesus. Listen to John 1 in verse 18. It says, no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. It's our prophet. That was his role on earth, and that'll be his role in heaven and forever. And I think he will proclaim our salvation to us for all of eternity as well. I think we will spend an eternity thinking about what God has done for us in Christ, and I think it's safe to say that he will do that through the ministry of Jesus Christ, working as our prophet. Christ will be teaching us about our salvation forever. And as we draw to a close, I'd like to just consider the proof text that our catechism uses here. 1 Peter 1 verses 10 through 12 says, Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. Those prophets of old were teaching of our salvation. And just as a side note, notice the sufferings and glory we spoke about last time. It's humiliation and exaltation are seen right there. As we see the prophets teaching of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. Peter then says to them, it was revealed that not to themselves, but to us. They were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into. We can see here that all of the prophets were doing the same job as Christ, right? The prophets, meaning the Old Testament prophets who wrote much of the Old Testament books, We're doing the job of inquiring, searching, and then revealing the gospel, meaning salvation, and they did it for us. We are the recipients of their work, and this is the work of Jesus too. He will work alongside the Holy Spirit to reveal and proclaim our salvation forever, just like he has done in his earthly ministry, and just like he has done since his resurrection life. Verse 12 shows us the role of the apostles and the New Testament gospel preacher also. Those words of salvation that men preach, if they're preached in the Holy Spirit, like we talked about earlier, worshiping in spirit and truth, then they are being used by God to gather all things together in one in Christ. That's the work of God, revealing the will of God to the people of God by the foolishness of the preaching of the Word. God's purpose in the prophet. is to bring the people of God into intimate fellowship with himself. He wants to gather you and me. And he does it by calling us, and telling us everything, and keeping nothing from us. He wants us to know him completely. John 15 and verse 15 says, Jesus says, no longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends. For all things that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you." It's absolutely mind-blowing. That's the ministry of Jesus Christ as our prophet. And for what purpose? John 20 and verse 31 tells us that these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. Pretty incredible. Christ truly is our prophet. He reveals the will of God by the spoken word, by the written word, and as the word of God incarnate. And he does it by the spirit of God, working within the human heart. And this wonderful message is nothing less than the gospel and salvation. As we close, let's just be reminded of this wonderful gospel. We have inherited a sin nature. that has disabled us from pleasing God. With that sin nature we have leaned into sin and embraced sin and we have taken sin further than we could have ever imagined we could. That's the human condition. This is what we must be saved from. We must be saved from the sin we inherited and we must be saved from the sins that we have embraced and committed ourselves. And we must be saved from the consequences of those sins, which is everlasting suffering and death. That's the bad news. We are wretched sinners, all of us. The good news is that only wretched sinners are eligible for the grace of God. May today be the day each and every one of us thinks deeply on our wretchedness. And by faith, may today also be the day that each and every one of us lays hold of the only hope that lost souls have, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Every one of us will be held responsible for every sin. In his death, though, Jesus took that sin upon himself so that we might be given a clean slate. That's an amazing gospel. That's the good news. God loves his people so much. that He has sent His only Son to die in our place and to live according to the perfect holiness that He requires from us. That's a blessed truth. That's the kind of love that brings us into fellowship forever and that's the kind of love that will guide us and keep us through all the hardships and all the stumbling and all the sin that plagues us in this life. The love of God is declared in Jesus Christ and in Him we are safe and we are saved. May we all have eyes to see Him today and lay hold of Him today. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, once again we thank you for the blessing to spend some time in your Word. We thank you for all that you've provided for us. Most importantly, we thank you for Christ our Savior. We thank you for His life and His death, for His sufferings and His glory. O Lord, We desire to look into both and understand them both more clearly and more deeply and we look forward to eternity where we can sit at your feet and hear your stories as you declare and reveal yourself to us forever and ever. Lord I just thank you for the profoundness of this topic and I pray Lord that even this week as we go about our lives that we might contemplate more deeply on who you are and what you do for us now and what you've done for us in your life. And may we love you more for it and serve you more for it. And may we find ourselves longing to please this gracious and loving God. So we thank you for who you are. We ask your blessing upon the remainder of our time. In Jesus' name, amen.