Word of Salvation – Vol.51 No.20 – April 2006

 

All In Him Is Now In Me!

 

A Sermon by Rev Sjirk Bajema on Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 12

Scripture Reading:  John 15:1-17

 

Congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The picture before us in Lord’s Day 12 is quite phenomenal. And I’m not talking here about the obvious word pictures which are here. There are three pictures which we will come to. Rather, there is a bigger picture which is showing us something incredible! All that the name “Christ” represents – and it represents the fulfilment of all the offices and special gifts in Scripture – are what all of us who are Christians now have!

I have to say that again. Each one of us is as Christ to this world! We have in Him everything we need to witness to this world to what He has done, and to what He’s still doing. Because of what we are doing for Him, He gives us nothing less than what He is Himself, so that we can do His work. As He carried out His Father’s will in His doing and dying, so we today are doing no less than working out the Great Commission He gave to His Church in Matthew 28.

The three word pictures of our text show how He does that through us. He works through us in this way because that is how it was done through Him!

It’s no surprise that these pictures are found already in the Old Testament. What has been fulfilled in Christ, the Messiah, has already been shown in Israel. God’s leadership in Israel was carried out by the Prophet, the Priest, and the King!

Firstly, we look at the place of the prophet. And I’m sure that for many of us there’s a distinct picture which comes to mind when we say the word “prophet”. I mean, boys and girls, what is a “prophet” to you? Did you think of someone like John the Baptist? Do you think of a person who is a hermit, often ranting and raving against the excesses and evils of the Israelites? Is a prophet a person who often has weird visions about the future?

If we look at the Old Testament prophets, this stereotype picture is largely wrong. So what was it that made a true prophet? What made a prophet was the message that he had for God’s people. In the words of the first aspect to this sermon, he is…

THE ONE WHO SPEAKS OUT.

In spite of himself, in spite of whatever objections or personal difficulties he may have had, a prophet was a man appointed by God to bring His message to His people. And we see this in all the genuine Old Testament prophets, right through from Moses to John the Baptist. A prophet has the truth of God and he’s empowered with God’s Spirit to tell that truth to God’s people. The central thing that made him a prophet was His calling to speak God’s message.

So we see why Christ is called in the Catechism our chief prophet and teacher. As it says there, in Answer 31, He “perfectly reveals to us the secret counsel and will of God for our deliverance.”

Indeed, through faith, Christ does reveal for us the secret counsel and will of God. We are brought into an awareness of what His Word, the Holy Bible, is all about. And what Jesus reveals to us is done perfectly – in a far better and a far wider way than any previous prophet. In fact, central to the message of all the prophets was a foretelling, a prediction, of this great Prophet who was to come. Even Moses, considered the greatest prophet by the Jews, said in Deuteronomy 18:15, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.”

It was Jesus who fully declared the truth of God. It was Jesus who showed Himself to be the substance – He was the One who fully revealed what all those other prophets could only see dimly.

John’s Gospel often speaks of this connection between Jesus and the truth. In the first chapter, verse 18, he says, “No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” Jesus is the One through whom we learn of the Father. Jesus was that Word that came through the Old Testament, and also which came later in the New Testament letters.

Further on in John’s Gospel, our Lord uses the picture of Himself as ‘The True Vine’. Whoever, through faith, is connected as a branch to that vine is joined to Christ, the true Word. And as branches coming from the True Vine we have flowing through us the character of the Vine. It’s a position we hold, though, only as a branch connected to that Vine. As Jesus said in John 15, verse 5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Because Jesus has come, because He perfectly fulfilled the will of His Heavenly Father, he has poured out His Spirit on all His people. The prophet Joel foretold of this. He said, in Joel 2 verse 28, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.”

So, as part of the Body of Christ, we share in His anointing. Having that gift of faith means we go out and tell about Jesus to those around us. You see, it’s in order to tell of Him that each of us is a prophet.

We must be careful, however, not to become confused about what a prophet does. Many have the idea of prophet we heard about earlier. You know, that strange guy in rags with all sorts of weird visions of what the future was going to be.

While it’s true that prophets sometimes did speak of what was going to happen in the future, that was always only on the basis of what God was telling the people for that time. Jeremiah, for example, could tell the nation of Judah about their future captivity because they were ignoring the law of God then. Already, eight hundred years before Jeremiah’s time, Moses had warned the people what would happen if they were disobedient. So Jeremiah was only pointing the people to God’s Word which was in front of them.

The main task of a prophet is pointing the way to God the Son – Christ Jesus Himself. They had to tell about the greatest prophet of all – because He was and is God amongst us all – and in us all. And we as prophets – every one of us – are called upon to do the same, all the time! In the words of Hebrews 13, verse 15, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name.” Confessing God’s Name has to be part of living the Christian life. This is true no matter which part of the body of Christ you are!

The apostle Paul shows it in the way we relate to others, in Ephesians 4 verse 25, “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbour, for we’re all members of one body.” A true prophet speaks truthfully to his neighbour. He has nothing to hide. He’s actually got the most wonderful news of all to share – God’s plan of salvation for all his people!

But when we don’t speak truthfully, we lead our neighbour astray – whether he’s our fellow Christian, or an unbeliever. Then a false message is proclaimed.

Congregation, we need to know God and His will, so that our message isn’t false. We need to study His Word all the time so that we can confess who God is, and what He’s done in our lives.

So far our first word picture. The second is that of a priest. In the words of our second point, he is…

THE ONE WHO PRAYS FOR.

The priest in the Old Testament was the One who would make atonement with God, on behalf of the people, through a sacrifice. He was the One appointed and anointed by God to bring before Him the sacrifices for the sins committed, and also the sacrifices of thanksgiving. And in doing these things faithfully, the Old Testament priests, and especially the High Priests, pointed forward to that sacrifice which Christ would bring.

Mind you, Christ was much more than the one offering the sacrifice. In fact, He was also the sacrifice! Although the Old Testament priest had to carefully prepare everything according to God’s instructions, yet none of them could ever be that sacrifice. They would always have fallen short of God’s holy standard. And yet there is one who presents the sacrifice perfectly and who is also, at the same time, that perfect sacrifice! He is our Lord Jesus Christ, without spot and without blemish!

Our Lord’s sacrifice has truly set us free. In the words of Hebrews 7:27-28, “Unlike the other high priests, Jesus does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the Lord appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.”

Perfect forever! Is it no wonder then that there can be no other mediator between man and God! And so it is that we also read in that same chapter in Hebrews, verse 25, “he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”

Christ died for His people – but He also lives for them! Even now He is pleading our cause with the Father. He continues to be the Intercessor that no one else could be. And so, as members of Christ by faith, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence, knowing that we will receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Christ’s priesthood also affects us in another way. Because He, our Head, is the Priest, we also become priests, since we share in what is His. Answer 32 of the Catechism says that I am, “to present myself to him as a living sacrifice of thanks.”

The apostle Paul elaborates upon this in Romans 12. In the verses 1 and 2 he exhorts us, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – which is your spiritual worship. Don’t conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

Did you hear that? You are to be a living sacrifice! In everything we do we’re to show God’s glory. In every possible way we’re to show the spotless sacrifice that Christ was for us. We have to follow God’s Will.

How does this make us THE ONE WHO PRAYS FOR? Well, it means we aren’t conforming any more to the pattern of this world. We don’t allow ourselves to be tripped up and trapped by all the world’s temptations around us. We all know, or should know, what they are. We should know the things that tempt us, so that we can guard ourselves against them. There’s the love of money; the love of one’s self; the chasing after sexual pleasures outside of marriage. Instead of allowing our bodies to become impure in these ways, we’re to offer up the different parts of our bodies as instruments to be used in God’s hands. We set ourselves aside for him. We are being holy for His purpose.

In the Old Testament the priest would be especially dedicated when the time came for the sacrifice to be made. We, too, are to be especially dedicated. But not just for a short time! And not only for a certain part of us! No! It’s for all the time! And it’s to be through every part of our body – in the same way Jesus was.

Believer – every fibre in your body must be dedicated totally for the service of the Lord. Certainly not an overnight thing! It will take much time and effort. It means that we spend time with God in prayer, also remembering the needs of others, as a true priest does. Don’t forget that you’re a sacrifice – a sacrifice who is to reflect the love of God in Christ, for His people.

And now we come to our third word picture. We have before us the image of a king. In the words of our third aspect…

THE ONE WHO RULES OVER.

As we look at the Old Testament, we sadly don’t see many good kings. Instead of ruling the people of God wisely, most of the kings of Israel and Judah were foolish. They ignored the clear-cut commands of their covenant God. They worshipped other gods – the gods of the nations around them. And with that came the whole evil lifestyle – as their hearts were, so did their lives follow.

Yet there were a few godly kings. Who can forget King David – the man after God’s own heart? Yes, David, the king who walked with his Lord, who wrote many of those beautiful psalms, who fought and conquered the pagan nations around Israel, all through the guidance and strength of his Lord. Yet, this was also the same David who committed adultery with Bathsheba. The same David who failed to bring his own children up in the ways of the covenant. The same David who could be such a deceitful politician.

So David, too, was not the perfect king. What, then; would there ever be a perfect king?

The LORD had told His people what He expected of their kings. Moses had told the people just before they entered the Promised Land about this. In Deuteronomy 17:17-18, he said, “the king is… to write for himself on a scroll a copy of the law… It is to be with him and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of the law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left.”

As most of us know, there wasn’t one king of Israel or Judah who kept this law perfectly! Well, at least not until Jesus Christ came to the earth as the ultimate king of Israel! When Jesus came, then this command of God’s, given to Moses, was completely fulfilled. His reign is one that will never end.

And, yet, He was the King who came in complete humility. He was the King who fulfilled the prophecy of entering into Jerusalem gently, riding upon a colt, the foal of a donkey. This is the eternal King – the One who rules over us, and who defends and preserves us forever.

Let’s consider those two aspects to Christ’s Kingship that I’ve just mentioned. In the first place, He rules over us. He doesn’t rule like an earthly king – with the physical strength of military power. Instead, He rules the Church by His Word and Spirit. Through the faithful preaching of His Word, He guides His people in His way, through His Spirit.

Secondly, He defends and preserves us. He does this by protecting us with His almighty power, arming us against our enemies. So His Spirit gives us every weapon we need to fight the enemy – sin, the world, and the devil.

Now, let’s take those two points about Christ’s Kingship, and apply them to us. Firstly, we as kings are to rule, by the Word of God, over ourselves, our homes, our churches, and our society. A tall order! Yet we are called and equipped to do it! Yes, equipped! In the words of Ephesians 6:10-11, “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Christian – fight the good fight! Hold on to the faith! Strive with a good conscience!

Don’t kid yourself – this will be a life-long struggle until we’re called to glory! And it’s a vicious battle. The devil would very much love to wreck the unity of the Church, and ruin our lives.

But, secondly, we have a power far greater than that of the devil. We have a King – our Lord Jesus Christ – who decisively defeated Satan on the cross.

And so it is that Answer 32 can end on such a high, optimistic, note. As it says of our future, “and afterward to reign with Christ over all creation for all eternity.”

Well, congregation, we have seen three different pictures. Three aspects of living the life of the Christian. A prophet, a priest, and a king. The three most important positions in Old Testament Israel. All combined in Christ. And, now, through our sharing in His anointing we, too, are prophets, priests, and kings.

Let’s then go forth in His power this week, declaring His Name as good prophets; presenting ourselves as living sacrifices to His service in all that we do; and ruling over our lives as we reflect Christ’s Kingship. And then these words from Revelation 12, the verses 11 and 12, will apply to us, “They overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their own lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you that dwell in them.”

Amen.

PRAYER:

Let’s pray…

Dearest Lord Jesus,

You are our perfect and true Prophet, Priest, and King! May we have been drawn that much closer to you in all these different ways today. And tomorrow, as we take up our daily work again, bless us by your Word and Spirit so that we will show and tell of your victory ever so clearly. In your precious Name, we pray.

Amen.