Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, we declare that you are king and we pray would you reign in this room, in this place, in each of our hearts, in my words and the things I say, that they would honour you and I pray that you would do a great work in this place through the power of your Holy Spirit, that you would convict us of sin and call us to follow Jesus Christ as king and change our lives according to your will. You your will be done. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.
Introduction
Who is the king in your life? Ruling over you? Who is the king in your life? Inviting you to join in with others and follow one person. Who is the king in your life? A role model to emulate. Who is the priest of your life? Who connects you to God, the Divine One, and who is your prophet? When they speak, it’s like the gospel, their words are gospel. Who is bringing divine words over you and in you and through you in your life? Who is your king, who is your priest, and who is your prophet? These are questions that all the Israelites cared about as they received the law in the book of Deuteronomy. And so the end of Deuteronomy, chapter 16, the whole of Deuteronomy, chapter 17 and chapter 18 are about leaders, political leaders like kings, but also religious leaders like priests and prophets. And my sermon is very imaginatively called this morning, Kings, priests and Prophets.
Bible Passage
Turn to Deuteronomy, chapter 17, and I’m going to read from verse 14 all the way through to the end of chapter 18. So Deuteronomy 17, Deuteronomy 17, 14, 1822. Here’s what it when you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it, and dwell in it, and then say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me, you may indeed set a king over you, whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. Only he must not acquire many horses for himself, or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, you shall never return that way again, and he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law of approved by the Levitical priests, and it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children in Israel. The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with his shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the Lord’s food offerings as their inheritance. They shall have no inheritance among their brothers. The Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them. And this shall be the priest’s due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep, they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach, the first fruits of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep. You shall give him. For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time. And if a Levite comes from any of your towns, out of all Israel where he lives, and he may come when he desires, to the place that the Lord will choose and ministers in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord, then he may have equal portions to eat besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony. When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes, or interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a necromancer, or one who inquires of the dead. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For these nations which you are about to dispossess listen to fortune tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen, just as you desired of the Lord your God. At Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, or see this great fire anymore, lest I die. And the Lord said to me, they are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But 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 if you say in your heart, how may we know the word of the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
Sermon Outline
Three offices, three roles of leadership mentioned in Deuteronomy 17:18. Kings, priests and prophets. And we will start by looking at chapter 17, verses 14 to 20, and thinking about kings in the land of Israel.
Kings
There was a provision from God for Israel to appoint a king over themselves. But notices that’s what happens in verse 14. It doesn’t say in verse 14, God commands you to appoint a king. Actually, it says that there will come a time when you ask for a king to be like the other nations. And at that moment it is okay for you to appoint a king. What’s crucial in this law is that the king of the Israelites must be God’s choice. I want to say this before I get into the detail of the text. I want to say to each one of you, who is the king of your life? Is it God’s choice or is it your choice?
Now, God cares about character. So when God’s going to choose a king, he gives the Israelites in this law all these different character traits. So he must be an Israelite, verse 15, and not a foreigner. He must not be greedy. He mustn’t be greedy for power or for wealth. You know, a king could say, I want loads of horses, so I have the biggest army. In fact, I might even go back to Egypt and ask them for extra warriors. And that’s greed in the heart of the king. Or the king might say, I want excessive silver and gold. I want my palaces to be full of all the coins that I can possibly imagine. So God says, you must not appoint a king like this who would be excessively greedy for power or for Gold. He must not have many wives, it says in verse 17, because many wives will turn his heart away from God and away from the people. You know, there’s a hint here that the king’s job is to serve the people of Israel. But actually, if he has hundreds of wives, then he’s going to be otherwise engaged. Most Importantly, in verses 18 to 26, the king must love and read and even write his own copy of the Jewish law. He must be a person who perfectly knows what God has commanded, and he must live in the fear of God, obeying the commands, not turning to the right or to the left. This is the type of king that God wants in our lives.
Now, what God says in his law happens in 1 Samuel, chapter 8. The nation of Israel come to Samuel, who’s getting old. He’s the judge, he’s the leader in some sense, in Israel. And the Israelites come to Samuel and say, we’re looking at all these other nations and they all have kings. We don’t have a king. Why don’t we have a king? Will you appoint a king for us, Samuel? They say. And Samuel initially thinks that they’re rejecting him. But God says to Samuel, actually, I’m king in this land. They’re rejecting me. And God replies to the people and says, if you appoint a king now, he will acquire many horses, he will acquire many wives, he will take your daughters, and he’ll make them slaves in his house. He will basically be everything that Deuteronomy 17 says the king ought not to be. The people are warned that this is a very bad idea to appoint a king. And the Israelites still say, no, we want to be like the other nations. Appoint a king for us, and they appoint a man called Saul.
God chooses a man called Saul, who within two chapters of the Bible, offers an unlawful sacrifice to God. He’s not a man who has written out the law of God and knows it well and obeys it and lives it. He’s a man who almost immediately falls away from God’s law. And so God says, says, okay, well, I’m going to reject you, Saul, and I’m going to choose another man to be king. And he chooses David. Now, David, in many ways, is an excellent king. He’s described as a man after God’s own heart. I believe that David would have his own copy of the law and have read it and largely lived by it. And yet he was by no means perfect in many ways. David did turn to the left and to the right on occasion. He acquired multiple wives One of whom, very famously, Bathsheba, was acquired in a very evil way, essentially putting her husband to death. Well, so David dies and his son Solomon becomes king. And Solomon is given the gift of wisdom from God. And you think, great, he’s going to be a king. He’s going to follow the Commands of Deuteronomy 17. Well, let me tell you that Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, and his heart turned away as he led the people of God. So Rehoboam, as appointed king in the land of Israel. And Rehoboam was even worse than Solomon. Rehoboam. The very first thing he did is he said, I’m going to place a heavy burden on the people. I think he was greedy. He wanted them to work really hard for him. And so he places a heavy burden upon the people, and the nation splits in two. So he’s so such an overbearing king that. That the nation splits in two places. There’s the northern kingdom of Israel and there’s the southern kingdom of Judah, and there’s no longer one king over the whole nation. But there are two separate kings, because there’s basically a massive rebellion.
King after king after king fails to obey the Commandments of Deuteronomy 17. They are disobedient. Some of the kings even try and go back to Egypt and get horses from Egypt and military might and strength from Egypt. And even though it says explicitly not to do that In Deuteronomy chapter 17, you see, the problem is that when there was a godly king on the throne, they were never perfect. But when there was a godly king on the throne, the people followed the king and tended to become holier people, more godly people. But when, more often than not, there was an ungodly king on the throne, he led his people into idolatry and disobedience, poverty. By the time King Josiah is appointed in the land of Israel, the king definitely isn’t taking a copy of the law and writing it down and keeping it for themselves. In fact, when King Josiah becomes king, King Josiah was actually a good king. But when he becomes king, the nation has lost the law. They don’t have it. This amazing book, the words of God, was given to this nation, and the king was meant to copy it and make sure that he was following it. And they’ve lost it. They’ve lost the law. No one in Israel has a copy. There’s an amazing moment in history, actually, when they find it and they repent of all that’s gone wrong. But you can see that the Israelite kings in no way follow the commands of God. In Deuteronomy 17. They’re so bad at it that they lose the very words of God. This law is completely and utterly forsaken and broken and lost.
The thing for us in 2025 is the words of Deuteronomy 17:14. We would still quite like a king. In fact, I believe we have been created to have a king in our lives. I don’t mean King Charles, I mean no disrespect to him, but we’re not longing in our hearts for a king to cut ribbons and live in a fancy house and help charities. Again, no disrespect to kids, King Charles, but I think rather each of us want a king in our hearts. In fact, I think we need a king to lead us into battle. Not into war against the French, but rather a battle against real evil in the world. We need a king to lead us in that battle. United together. We need a king to unite us together as one people. You know, if everyone is king of their own life, we’ll all be doing our own things and individually running off and not achieving very much. The. The Bible says often actually that when people are united, then they can do awesome things. And so we need a king to unite us. A king who’s going to lead us into battle and unite us together to do great things for God. We need a king who’s going to lead us into righteousness, a role model who’s going to obey the law of God and live out what it is to be righteous so we can all follow him together. And do you know, this is a special picture, I think. Imagine a whole nation united behind one king who’s leading that whole nation in a righteous direction so that we’re fighting and battling evil, all of one mind and one accord, and we’re going in a righteous direction. Isn’t that just a glorious picture? Isn’t that kind of what we want? We want a king. We need a king who’s going to serve his people rather than lord it over them. That’s what verse 20 is about. God says, you don’t want to have a king who’s going to be lifted up above his brothers. You want a king who’s going to serve his citizens Now.
Christchurch Fareham if it’s not already obvious, we have such a king in the person of Jesus Christ. He unites us together to fight against evil. He shows us what righteousness looks like. He fully obeyed all his Father’s commands in everything he did. Completely and awesomely obedient in everything he did. And so he’s the perfect role model and the one to follow. He knows and does the law of God. He puts the Pharisees to shame when they’re talking about the Scriptures. Because he is one who has taken God’s word and memorized it and learned it and read it. And it’s become part of his heart. Jesus was not one who lifted himself over and above his brothers in order to acquire many horses or excessive silver or gold. Rather, he was lifted up upon the cross and died in order to serve his brothers, serve his nation, so that all who trust in him would be forgiven and granted everlasting life. Deuteronomy 17 was a law that was broken over and over and over again throughout Israelites history. But it was fulfilled by one person. His name is is Jesus Christ. He is God’s choice to be your king. And therefore we’ve sung already. But let us really do it in our hearts and say in our hearts, Jesus, I want you to be my king. I want you to lead me. In fact, I want you to rule over me. When you say go, I will go. If you say stay, I will stay. You be my king. Let’s honor him as king and respect him and adore him as king. And let’s celebrate that he is a good and righteous king like the one described in Deuteronomy 17.
Be warned that when we choose kings for ourselves, we tend to choose based on the negative qualities of Deuteronomy 17. We tend to pick rich, greedy people who lift themselves up. And I just encourage you, don’t think fall into the mistake of the world in making people like that. Your king and the one you follow, follow Jesus Christ. One further thing I ought to say about kings is from Revelation 5 verses 9 to 10, Jesus is God’s choice. He is the king of kings. But Christians are kings and queens in training. In Revelation 5, verse 9, it says this. They sing a new song saying, worthy are you. That’s Jesus. To take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain and by your blood. You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. You see, Jesus is the true king, the one king, the king of all kings. But as Christians we are knitted into we united to Jesus. And we are being prepared to reign on the earth. And in the new heavens and the new earth. We will be kings and queens under Christ over all the world. And you will have your patch of land or your country or whatever, where you will be king or queen. And that’s what God is preparing you for. He’s the king, we are kings under him. So we’ve seen a pattern already from Deuteronomy 17. There’s a law about kings. There’s utter failure from the Israelites to follow the law. Then there’s perfect success in the person of Jesus Christ, the perfect king. And then Christians in Christ will reign on the earth.
Priests
Well, let’s think about priests. In chapter 18, verses 1 to 8, Moses gives laws to the priests in the land. And in particular, I think there are two focuses in Deuteronomy chapter 8. Firstly, how will the Levite priests survive given that every other tribe has been allocated land on which to grow food, but the Levites haven’t? That’s what happened when the Israelites entered the promised land. Every tribe was given some land apart from the Levites. Well, how will the Levites survive? How will they get their own food?
Well, the answer is in verse one, they shall eat part of the Lord’s offering. And that provision is spelled out in 18:3. The Levite priests get the animal cheeks, they get the shoulder, they get the stomach. I don’t know whether the Levites are going, yes, that’s the best part, or whether they’re going, oh, I would have preferred the leg, personally, I don’t know anyway. And in verse four, they also get the first fruits of the grain and the wine and the oil. They get clothes provided as well. So they get given the first fleece of the sheep that’s sheared as well. So they’re getting all this, all this provision. They’re well looked after by all the tribes. So the Levites, it doesn’t matter that they don’t have any land because they’re getting the things that they need from the rest of the nation. That’s the first focus of those verses in 1 to 8.
The second focus is that because the Israelites don’t inherit land, they inherit something else. They inherit God. The Lord is their inheritance. That’s what it says in verse two, the Lord is their inheritance. And then three times in verses five to seven, there’s this similar phrase that’s sort of repeated that the Levites get to stand and minister in the name of the Lord. So you’ve got the Lord is their inheritance, and the Levites, their job is to stand and minister in the name of the Lord. And. And that is a tremendous privilege given to the Levite tribe. What God is saying, what Moses is saying in this sermon preached is he’s saying, you Levites, you get God. All the other nations get their own patch of land, but you get God. The Lord is your inheritance. You can imagine, like a grumpy Levite going, oh, I really liked that bit of land over there. I would have loved to have had a nice house on a hill and some fields. And Moses going, no, you get the Lord, he’s your inheritance. You get to stand and minister in his name.
Now, I just want to show you Deuteronomy 10:8 to just unpack a little bit about what is meant by standing and ministering in the name of the lord. Yes. Deuteronomy 10:8 should be on the screen behind me at some stage. Beautiful. What it says in that verse is that to stand before the Lord is to minister to him. Minister to the Lord in Deuteronomy 10:8, and then to bless in his name. That’s what the Levites do. They minister to the Lord and then they bless in the Lord’s name. It’s really important that the role of the Levite priests is to work in two different directions. The Levite priests minister to God, and that word minister means serve. Now, it’s not as if God needs serving. He’s God, he can do all things. So it’s not like the Levites are doing something for God that God can’t do himself. But rather, the priest’s job is to offer the appropriate sacrifices that God has commanded to worship him and obey and please God. There’s a ministry of the priest to the Lord. Again, not that God needs needs it, but that’s what he’s commanded. And therefore the Levite’s job is to serve him. And then having offered sacrifices to him, ministering to him, they then bless the people in God’s name. They declare that a sacrifice has been made and therefore the people have, can have their sins forgiven and can receive God’s blessing and favor. That’s what a priest does, works in two directions to God and then from God to the people.
Well, how did the priests do at this job in Israelite history? Well, rather like the kings, the Israelites didn’t quite perform what they ought to perform. And over time, instead of offering these sacrifices at the temple, for example, they would build high places in other parts of the nation. They wouldn’t go to the temple as God had instructed, but instead they would offer sacrifice in other places. And soon they weren’t Offering sacrifices to God at all, but offering sacrifices to idols and bars and all kinds of other things. In fact, when you get to the last book of the Old Testament in Malachi chapter two, this is what God says directly to the priests of Israel. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, the kings corrupted the law that they were given in Deuteronomy 17, and the priests corrupted the instructions that they were given in terms of being priests to the Lord.
Now what does this have to do with us in Christchurch Fareham in 2025? Well, every single sermon that I found online on this passage does this. I’m not going to do this, but every single sermon that I found on this passage on this chapter does this. The pastor will say, make sure you look after your pastor and give him what he needs so he can devote himself to the works of ministry. That’s what every single person reading that passage has done. Every sermon that I found online. Now the idea is good, that gospel preachers should make a living from preaching the gospel. And I’m very grateful to the generosity of people in this church that pay my salary so that I can go on proclaiming the gospel unhindered by a secular job. And that’s a biblical idea and I’m very thankful for that. So thank you. But. But I want to tell you this. Not once in the New Testament, not once in the New Testament are church leaders called priests. Not once does the New Testament use that kind of language to describe church leaders. I personally do not think that church leaders should take that title because the Bible doesn’t do that.
So when we apply this passage, I want to think about how the New Testament uses the word priest. And the New Testament uses the word priest in two ways. Firstly, of course I’m going to preach Jesus. I make no apologies because Jesus is the fulfilment of the law. And I think all of this leads us to Christ. But Jesus is called the great high priest. Hebrews 7:10 speaks of Jesus priestly work in a very detailed way. And I kind of wish I could now sort of start, stop preaching, just read to you the whole of Hebrews 7 to 10. But it would take a while. Instead I’m going to read to you just Hebrews 8:1:3. I’m struggling to find it here. And this is what it says. Now the point in what we are saying is this. We have Christians have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of majesty in heaven, minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.
So do you see how that’s a parallel of what’s going on in Deuteronomy 18? In Deuteronomy 18, they’re ministering in the name of the lord. And Hebrews 8 is saying, we have such a high priest, one who is not in a, not in a temple or not in a tent on earth, but he is in heaven at the right hand of the Father, and he is ministering to the Lord on our behalf. And then it says that every priest, when they minister to the Lord has to bring a gift and sacrifice. And the rest of Hebrews 7 to 107 to 10 reveals that Jesus doesn’t offer a lamb or an ox to God. Rather he offers Himself. And this is why he is a far better priest than any priest in the Old Testament. Even if they obeyed all the commandments that God gave them. Because they have to offer sacrifices all the time. Every time they sin, they have to kill an animal for the sins that they’ve committed. And they certainly have to come in time and time and time again. But Jesus Christ offered the perfect sacrifice, his very self upon the cross. One sacrifice once for all, offered not for his own sin, but offered for our sin and things that we had done wrong. So what Hebrews is all about is we have the priest, the high priest, who’s ministering to God on our behalf by offering himself as a sacrifice. And therefore we can come confidently before the throne of God because we are washed clean by the blood that Jesus has shed on on our behalf. Jesus ministers to God the Father like the priests of Deuteronomy 18 with the sacrifice of his own body. And he now continually ministers on our behalf in heaven and he blesses people on earth. Jesus works in two directions. He ministers to God, bringing us, in a sense, to God through His sacrifice.
And he declares a blessing upon us because of the sacrifice that he has made. Jesus pronounced a blessing on anyone who believes in Christ. And so I say to you, if you’re not a believer in Christ, then put your faith and trust in him today. And when you do, this is what God will pronounce over you. God remembers your sins no more. God remembers your lawless deeds no more. You are the blessed and beloved people of God or person of God. Isn’t it fantastic? We have messed up in life. We do not deserve to be in the presence of God. We do not deserve to be blessed by God. But Jesus Christ, the great high priest, offers himself as a sacrifice and then brings a great blessing and pronouncement to anyone who believes in him that our sins are forgiven and that we are the beloved people of God. Now just receive that in your heart, just for a second, if you are a Christian. Jesus offered the perfect sacrifice. So there’s nothing in you that’s sinful before God. It’s all been taken away by what Jesus has done. You stand before him, blameless and righteous, a saint in his presence. And you are beloved because Jesus pronounced this blessing over you. That’s his high priestly work. Jesus is the kingly fulfilment of Deuteronomy 17, and he’s the priestly fulfilment of chapter 18.
But the new Testament uses this word priest also to describe Christians. 1 Peter 2:9 says that we are a royal priesthood. I’m asking you two questions as I’m teaching you about Jesus the great high priest and the priesthood that’s been given to us. I’m firstly asking, have you received Jesus as priest? Have you been connected to God the Father through the work of Jesus Christ as priest? But I’m also asking you, are you fulfilling your priestly function, which, according to 1 Peter 2:9, is to proclaim the excellencies of God to others? You see, Jesus connects God and man, God the Father and man on earth. And he’s the perfect person to do that because he is fully God and fully man. So he truly stands as the perfect mediator. And then he says, you Christians who have been saved, you are in me, says Jesus. And therefore you are priests. And your role as priests is to proclaim the excellencies of God, the gospel of God, the good news of Jesus Christ. And as you do that, you’re to usher in those who do not know God into the place where they can have a relationship with God.
Now, it’s not you who offers your own sacrifice on the cross. They might do that. You bring them to Jesus, and Jesus completes the priestly work. But there is a priestly work for us to do on the earth connecting unbelievers with God. I want to bring an evangelistic challenge. Therefore, how will you connect others to God through Jesus Christ in the days and weeks ahead? Is there someone who this week you can share the excellencies of Jesus with them? This week? Week? Now, I’m not saying I’m living this out, but I want to be a Christian who’s constantly caring about those who do not know Jesus, constantly sharing the good news of Jesus, I want to be constantly praying for opportunities and I want to be bold to take those opportunities. I’m not saying it depends upon me because the Holy Spirit works and Christ blesses, but I need to be willing and open. And one of my people is well in this church. I want us as a people to be willing and open, always ready to share, and on the front foot evangelistically. And so I just want to bring that challenge. Are you performing your priestly work that God has called you to? One other thing we can learn from the priests in Deuteronomy is that our inheritance is the Lord. You know, when you became a Christian, when you walked in the door, we didn’t go right. I’ve chosen a patch of land in Fareham, and this can be your little patch of land. You’re like a root. No, that’s not what happens you if instead, when you became a Christian, you didn’t get given a piece of land, but you got the Lord himself. And every Christian has received the person of the Holy Spirit. And therefore every Christian can minister to the Lord day by day, moment by moment, in everything that you do. And it’s our joy to minister to him in worship and prayer and service, to offer him all the things that he asks of us. And even in your job, you can do that worshipping the Lord as glory to him. So we’ve got the law for the priests in Deuteronomy 18. We’ve got the failure of the Israelites, the covenant of Levi broken and corrupted. And then you’ve got Jesus, the perfect priest who does the job that Deuteronomy was always speaking about. And then you’ve got us called to be a royal priesthood, doing priestly work on Christ’s behalf on the earth.
Prophets
Thirdly, we’re going to think about prophets. Verses 9 to 22 are about prophets. And I want to start by just looking at verses 9 to 14 very quickly. There is a warning in those verses against evil ways of trying to connect to the divine. Instead of offering sacrifices with the priest, there was a temptation for the Jews to copy the nations that were around them and to commit the very great evil of burning a city, son or daughter, as a sacrifice to the Lord. You want to know why these nations were destroyed by the Lord in judgment? It’s because they did that. Now, I suspect that we aren’t tempted to do that and to burn our sons and daughters as sacrifices, but I know that there are many people who give in to temptations listed in the other verses in Deuteronomy. Chapter 18 in 2025. And so, brothers and sisters, I want to say, if you want to connect to God, this is not the way to do it. Do not practice divination. Do not go to fortune tellers. Do not go to someone who interprets omens. Do not associate with tarot cards or tea leaf reading or astrology readings or palm readings. These advertise themselves as ways of connecting to the spiritual realm. And they do connect you to the spiritual realm, but not the Holy Spirit and the Holy God who but to evil spirits and evil spirits, use these things to get into your life and bring lives and evil into them. Any form of seeing the future or discerning the unseen which isn’t explicitly connected to Christ, the Church and the Bible is an abomination to the Lord. And it is a way to invite spiritual evil to enter your life. Verse 11 speaks of charmers and mediums and necromancers and one who inquires with the dead. Witchcraft is real and witchcraft is evil. There is no such thing as white witchcraft or good witches, because people who enter into witchcraft and concoct potions and, say, spells or charms are not accessing the good powers of God, but the evil satanic demonic powers that exist in this world. Even if a person’s motives are good, witchcraft in any form will lead to evil because of the power behind it. Mediums and ones who inquire of the dead are either complete charlatans or accessing the voice of evil spirits. You will never connect with a dead loved one through these means. And therefore I say, I think Deuteronomy 18 is very, very clear. Do not dabble in these things, run from these things. And if you have been affected by these things in the past, that’s okay. God heals, God forgives. We have people in this church who have been saved out of those kind of environments. And we praise God. But if that’s you, then just come and speak to me today. And we’d love to pray with you and see the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. And the Holy Spirit is way more powerful than any evil spirit he will conquer. He will bring healing, he will bring transformation. But if you have dabbled in those things, then come, receive prayer and may the Lord heal you and bring you back into the light. If you do want to hear the voice of God, those evil ways will not help you.
But in verses 15 to 22, God says there is a way you can hear from God. There is a way you can connect to God. There is a prophet like Moses, whom God will raise up to speak on his behalf. Now hopefully you know something of the story of Moses. Moses would go up the mountain to be with God and to speak with God. And God would give him his words. And then Moses would come down the mountain and say, this is what the Lord has said to his people. And so the prophet has a kind of two way way of working as well. The prophet hears from God and then speaks to the people of on God’s behalf. And that’s what Moses did. And God is saying In Deuteronomy, chapter 18, there is one coming who is being lifted up. He must be listened to. Verse 19. Whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.
Peter in Acts chapter three preaches on these very verses and he says this. Acts 3, verses 22 to 23, he’s speaking about Jesus Christ. And he says, Moses said, the Lord will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people. Jesus is the ultimate prophet. He doesn’t have to go up a mountain to hear from the Lord because Jesus is the one who came from heaven, who sat at the right hand of the Father, who existed with the Father in glory forever and ever. And so when he comes to earth, one of the things he comes to do is not just his priestly work to connect us back to God, but also the prophetic work to proclaim the words of God to us. Jesus is the ultimate prophet who proclaims God’s message. And his primary message when Jesus comes to earth is believe in me. Believe in me several times and in several ways. Jesus says, I am the Son of God. Believe in me. And what does Peter say? If we fail to listen, we will face judgment. We will be destroyed. But if we listen to Jesus the prophet, if we believe in him, we will receive eternal life with God forever and ever. Jesus also prophesied several times about his death and resurrection before they took place. And the disciples didn’t really listen to him. Like, what are you talking about? Jesus? And Jesus, like, I’m going to be handed over to sinful men, I’m going to be crucified and I’m going to die. And the disciples only got it after it happened. We should love the words of Jesus, we should care about them and we should listen to them.
Do you know what I think? Sometimes charismatic Christians, and I am A charismatic Christian. I want us to be a charismatic church. But sometimes charismatic Christians can get more excited for the prophecy brought by someone on a Sunday morning than they can about the words of Jesus contained in Scripture. You know, I heard the voice of the Lord this morning when I opened up the Gospels and read. I heard Jesus God speaking to me. And you can every single time you open up the Spirit book. And that’s not to criticize the gift of prophecy. It’s a wonderful gift that we ought to celebrate and desire more in church. But I want you to know that Jesus is the prophet. The prophet like Moses, and we must listen to him. Are you a good listener to the words of Christ? Jesus is the ultimate prophet.
But Christians are called to be prophets too. In one sense. Every time we proclaim and announce the things that Jesus said and did, we are acting like the prophet did. One role of the prophet. This is what Jesus has said. I now proclaim it to you. That’s a prophetic thing in a sense. But in another sense, there’s the gift of prophecy. When a Christian hears from God or sees a vision or a picture from God and is given words to deliver that word or message to people or a person in the church. You see, the Bible is God’s word for all people across all times and all places. But prophecy is God speaking in a more immediate sense for a particular place and to a particular people. So we don’t take prophetic words and scribble them into our Bible because that’s not what we ought to do. But we do take prophecy seriously as well, and listen to the way God speaks through individuals in the the church. 1 Corinthians 14:1 says, Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. Desiring to prophesy is a form of pursuing love. If you want to be a loving person and you’re a Christian, you will be desiring prophecy, praying for the gift of prophecy, giving time to go up the mountain, metaphorically, and listening to God so that you might come with something to bring to an individual or the church. I wonder whether you’re doing this. Have you heard Jesus prophetic words? And are you eagerly desiring to prophesy? Are you ascending the mountain to hear God in preparation for being with God’s people?
There’s also a warning, of course, In Deuteronomy, chapter 18, in verses 20 to 22, about a prophet speaking presumptuously. And in Israel, the punishment for that is that they would be put to death in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was given to individuals to prophesy. So if someone claimed to have heard prophetically from God, it was an extremely serious thing. And if they were saying that presumptuously and saying things that weren’t from God, then it was a very, very serious sin. In the New Testament, we still take prophecy very seriously. We must not manipulate prophecy and share our own thoughts as though they were God speaking. But there’s a different emphasis in the New Testament. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon everyone in the church. And old men will dream dreams and young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants, the Holy Spirit is poured out. And so in the Old Testament, it’s kind of a really individual thing, like specific people are raised up. But in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is poured out on the church. There’s an expectancy that every Christian would eagerly desire to prophesy.
Now, it is a spiritual gift, and there will be some who receive that gift and prophesy often and hear from God often. But I think there’s an expectation in the church that every Christian would eagerly desire to prophesy. And so I just want to place that challenge with you. Eagerly desire to prophesy. 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 20 to 21 says, do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast what is good. The prophesier is not killed in the New Testament. Fortunately, but certainly their words are weighed and what is good is held onto.
Conclusion
As I draw to a close, I’d like to invite the band up to get ready behind me in Israel. They needed kings, priests and prophets, but they failed to govern Israel appropriately and broke God’s law in Deuteronomy 17 and verse 18. Sorry, chapter 17 and chapter 18. But then came one who fulfilled everything that was spoken about in those chapters of Scripture. There was one who came, who was the perfect king, the perfect priest, and the ultimate prophet. And his name is Jesus Christ. And so maybe the small you need to bow before Jesus as king. In your heart you need to say, jesus, you are my king. I follow you. Lead me with my brothers and sisters and be my role model. And as you do that, you can celebrate that Jesus is a righteous king who will build you up rather than squash you down. Maybe you need to come to Jesus as priest. This morning you need to say, Jesus, you offered yourself for me. You were the ultimate sacrifice. I’m going to receive this forgiveness again. I’m going to remind myself that I am blameless in the sight of God and that I am connected to God the Father through what Jesus has done. Maybe you need to receive Jesus as priest this morning. Or maybe you need to come to Jesus as prophet and say, lord, I’m opening my ears to hear your words and I will obey. I’m going to treasure God’s words above all others. Maybe you’re a non Christian and you need to listen to Jesus when he says, believe in me and I will give you eternal life. I’m going to encourage each and every one of you to pick one of those offices of Jesus to respond to. Are you coming to him as king? Are you coming to him as priest? Are you coming to him as the prophet this morning? Of course we come to him as all three of those things. But pick one now that Jesus is going to speak to you or do something in your heart in this moment. And as we sing this song, if God has convicted you on something in those areas, I’d love you to come forward and we can pray for you as we sing together. Perhaps as I’ve preached, you’ve also been challenged to take up your priestly or prophetic role as a Christian. Maybe you want prayer to be a better evangelist and connect non Christians with God. Or maybe you want prayer that the gift of prophecy would fall upon you. You want to eagerly desire it this morning. And if that’s you, I encourage you to come forward for prayer as well. We’d love to pray for you. We’ll get some volunteers if there’s lots of people who respond, which would be fantastic. But let’s stand together. I’m going to pray and then we’ll worship. And as I say, I’m expecting people to come forward for prayer as we sing this song. So I’d love you to respond in that way if God has spoken to you.
Closing Prayer
But let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your son Jesus. Lord Jesus, thank you that you are our righteous and perfect king who fully obeyed the law of God and who leads us in a righteous direction. And we say, Jesus, be our king. We bow before you and we love you, Jesus. We thank you that you are the great High Priest, that you offered yourself as a sacrifice for sin so that we might be connected to God the Father. Thank you for that great, awesome priestly work. And we want to believe that we are forgiven in your sight this morning. Thank you Lord Jesus, that you are the ultimate prophet who speaks to us the words of God himself. For you were God, you are God in human flesh, and I pray our ears would be open to hear from you in your role as prophet. Finally, Lord, I pray you pour out your Holy Spirit and anoint us for the work of evangelism, for the priestly work of connecting unbelievers with God. And I pray you’d pour out your Holy Spirit and give us the gift of prophecy, even in an even greater way in this church. Lord God, we want to hear from you and we want to hear your word spoken to us as a congregation. So thank you that you are king, priest and prophet. Come do a work in our midst. We pray in Jesus name.
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