Sunday 02/03/13 RWJ/Pottersville UMC
Sermon: “Prophet” (The
Natures of Christ Series, Part 5 of 5)
Scripture Lesson: Jeremiah 1:4-10
Gospel Lesson: Luke 4:21-30
Good
morning and welcome brothers and sisters! I greet you in the name of our Lord
and savior Jesus Christ! I hope and pray that you have all had good and blessed
weeks, and I am happy to be worshipping with you all here this morning!
This morning,
I will be finishing up my sermon series on the different natures of Jesus Christ.
As I have said throughout this sermon series, Jesus came and comes to us in
many forms. Jesus came as a baby, as a child, as a man, as the Messiah, as the
healer, as the teacher, as the son of God, and etc., and etc. In fact, I have
seen posters, t-shirts, and art work with the many names and natures of Christ.
I could have literally preached a 20-week sermon series on this, and not even
hit many of the natures of Christ.
With this
said, in this New Year, I wanted to get us all thinking about Jesus Christ, and
reflecting on who he was and who he very much still is. To help us with this, I
picked just a handful of the nature’s of Christ in this series.
This morning, I am ending this sermon
series by discussing Jesus’ nature as a “Prophet”. For me the word prophet has
also been confusing, and maybe it has been confusing for you to. We might say,
well “just what is a prophet”? Well, according the Merriam-Webster dictionary,
a prophet is: 1. “one who utters
divinely inspired revelations,” 2. “one gifted with more than ordinary spiritual and moral insight; especially : an inspired poet,”
and 3. “one
who foretells future events”.
The Old Testament was
filled with many human prophets like Ezekial, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, just to
name a few. These prophets, who have full books in the Old Testament of your
bible, called the people of God to repentance. Called them from there sinful
ways back to the Lord. These prophets were human and were sinners like you and
I, but they were given the gift from God of being able to be “prophetic”. God
gifted then specially in this area, as they spoke the truths of God,
prophesized the coming of the Messiah.
In this way, Jesus, is no
small prophet, but is in fact, the biggest of all prophets. He was and is the
prophet of all prophets. Yet scripture reminds us to beware of “wolves in sheep’s
clothes” who will lead us astray. As I was doing some church work at the church
parsonage yesterday, the History Channel had some sort of series on that was on
various cult leaders. My wife Melissa and I watched part of the episode on Jim
Jones, on the “Jonestown” mass suicide that occurred back in the 1970’s in the
country of Guyana. I didn’t see any of the other episodes on the History
Channel yesterday, but I think of the cult leader David Koresh who was involved
in a cult shootout and fire in Waco Texas in 1993. Both these “supposed
Christian pastors” and “false prophets”, made wild allegations of who they
were, or what God revealed to them. Yet Jesus said, “Watch out for false prophets. They
come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By
their fruit you will recognize them”.
You see false prophets aren’t new, and since the
time of Jesus Christ people have emerged who claimed to hear God speak, who
claimed to get special revelation from God, or claimed sometimes to even be
God. Yet we cannot add nor take away from Holy Scripture anything that Jesus
said, was, and still is. If Jesus is Lord and savior, and a gentleman on the
street approached you telling you that he is in fact Jesus Christ, I would
recommend that you do two things for him. First, bring this gentleman to you
nearest mental health clinic, and second pray for him. There is one Jesus
Christ, only one true and abiding all-encompassing high prophet. While God
still may send human prophets, such prophets are meant to call people to
repentance and to God, but there is only one God, and there is only one Jesus
Christ. Jesus said to beware of false prophets.
In the
scripture reading from this morning from the old testament prophet Jeremiah,
Jeremiah prophesized the coming of the great prophet, the anointed one, the son
of God, the savior. Jeremiah also made claims of this coming prophet, this
coming Messiah.
In the
gospel of Luke reading from this morning, Jesus spoke the words we read last
Sunday from the gospel of Luke, about Jesus reading from the book of Isaiah
scroll in the Jewish temple on the Sabbath day. Jesus read in Isaiah, that he
was the prophet of all prophets. He was saying, “guess what folks, all of this
talk from all of these past prophets has come true,” and he might have said, “I
am the one which the prophets of old foretold”. “I am him”. Yet when Jesus
began to reveal his true identity, many doubted him. Some said, “Is not this
Joseph’s son,” and they might have said, “how could the messiah, the high
prophet be the son of a poor carpenter”. Jesus was in fact driven out of town
by an angry mob, who took issue with his claims to be the high prophet.
In the
Christian bible, some experts have identified as many as 300 prophecies that
were made by Old Testament prophets, such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah,
that Jesus fulfilled. Let’s look at just some of these prophecies. If you are
more interested in this by the way, there are many good bible websites and
books that explain with Old Testament and New Testament scriptures side by side,
the prophecy of an Old Testament prophet, and then how Jesus fulfilled that
prophecy.
So let us
look at just some of these: In the Old Testament, it says that the Messiah
would be born in Bethlehem, it said that he would be born of virgin, it said
that he would be part of the line of Abraham, that he would be a decedent of
Isaac, that he would come from the Jewish tribe of Judah (which is why many
call Jesus Christ, the “Lion of Judah”), that he would be direct descendent of
King David, that he would be called by the name Immanuel, that he would spend a
season in Egypt, that a messenger would come and prepare the way for the
Messiah (this messenger was John the Baptist). It was prophesized in the Old
Testament, as was fulfilled in today’s scripture reading in the gospel of Luke,
that the Messiah would be rejected by his own people, as Jesus said, “Truly I
tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown”. According to the Old
Testament, Jesus would be called as a Nazarene (as many called him Jesus of Nazareth),
according to the old testament the messiah would speak in parables (like to
parable of the sower, or the parable of the mustard seek), the old testament
prophets prophesized that he would come to heal to brokenhearted, that he would
be called king, that he would be betrayed by one of his followers, that he would
be spat upon, that would be crucified with criminals, that he would have his
hands and his feet pierced, that his side would be pierced (as it was with the
spear), that he would raise from the dead, the he would be and still is seated
at the right hand of almighty God, and that he would die for the sins of all
human kind.
You see
brothers and sisters, these are but some of the prophecies that Jesus Christ
fulfilled. Like false prophets who just speak words, Jesus proved time and time
again when he prophesized about what he was going to do, that he did it. That
he was and is truly the Messiah, that the fullness of almighty God has come
true in Jesus Christ. I
would like to close today with a funny list of church bulletin announcements bloopers
that I can assure you are all false prophecies, or are all the fulfillment of
false prophecies! Here they are: Scouts are saving
aluminum cans, bottles, and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used
to cripple children. The outreach
committee has enlisted 25 visitors to make calls on people who are not
afflicted with any church. Evening
massage - 6 p.m. The Pastor would
appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric
girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday morning. The audience is asked to remain seated until the end of the
recession. Low Self-Esteem Support Group
will meet Thursday at 7 to 8:30 p.m. Please use the back door. Ushers will eat latecomers. The third verse of Blessed Assurance will be
sung without musical accomplishment. For
those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs. The Rev. Merriwether spoke briefly, much to
the delight of the audience. The pastor
will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing, "Break
Forth Into Joy." During the absence
of our pastor, we enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing a good sermon when J.F.
Stubbs supplied our pulpit. Due to the
Rector's illness, Wednesday's healing services will be discontinued until
further notice. Remember in prayer the
many who are sick of our church and community. The
eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the church basement
on Friday at 7 p.m. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy. The concert held in Fellowship Hall was a
great success. Special thanks are due to the minister's daughter, who labored
the whole evening at the piano, which as usual fell upon her. Mrs. Crutchfield
and Mrs. Rankin sang a duet, The Lord Knows Why.
A song fest was hell at the Methodist church Wednesday. Today's Sermon: HOW MUCH CAN A MAN DRINK? with
hymns from a full choir. Hymn 47: "Hark! an awful voice is
sounding" On a church bulletin
during the minister's illness: GOD IS GOOD Dr. Hargreaves is better. Potluck supper: prayer and medication to
follow. Don't let worry kill you off -
let the church help. The 1997 Spring
Council Retreat will be hell May 10 and 11. And
finally, the pastor is on vacation. Massages can be given to church
secretary.
While these church
bulletin announcement bloopers are extreme examples of false truths, false
prophecies, and false ideas, let us this week open our bibles, and read the
prophecies from the Old Testament, and let us then read how Jesus fulfilled
every single one of these prophecies and predictions that was about him. For it
is Jesus, our great prophet, who died for us all. May we serve him this day and
always, with all that we have. Amen.
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