Sermon for Epiphany 4, February 4, 2024
Grace, mercy, and peace be yours, forever, from God the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. Amen.
Deuteronomy 18:15-20 15The
Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your
brother Israelites. Listen to him. 16That
is exactly what you asked from the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the
assembly. You said, “Do not let me hear
the voice of the Lord my God anymore, and do not let me see this great fire
again, or I will die.” 17Then
the Lord said to me, “They have done well by saying what they said. 18I will raise up a prophet for
them from among their brothers, like you, and I will put my words in his mouth,
and he will speak to them everything that I command him. 19Anyone who will not listen to my
words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to
account. 20Any prophet who
presumes to speak something in my name that I have not commanded him to speak
or who speaks something in the name of other gods—that prophet shall die.” (EHV)
Listen
to God’s greatest Prophet.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The Lord
has never left His people without guidance or hope. From the beginning, God offered forgiveness
and salvation to those who believe in Him and the Savior He promised to
send. Throughout time, God appointed
certain men to teach and or lead His people, and perhaps the greatest of those
Old Testament prophets was Moses. Yet,
here in one of Moses’ farewell sermons, He tells the people of Israel to Listen
to God’s greatest Prophet.
Moses’ time on earth was nearing its end, but
the Lord didn’t want His people unprepared.
Thus, He gave inspiration to Moses to remind the people of what God had
done for them and what the Lord yet planned to do to work out their
salvation. Much of the book of
Deuteronomy is a reminder of all that Moses had been given to teach God’s
people. He then provides a prophecy of
the Savior—a point to give us no doubt as to who would lead us to the promised
land of heaven—Moses told the people, “The Lord your God will raise up for
you a prophet like me from among you, from your brother Israelites. Listen to him.”
The greatest Prophet would be, to some extent, like
Moses yet far greater in other ways.
Like Moses, the Savior would come from the midst of the people. Like Moses, many would question why they
should follow Him. Like Moses, God would
speak directly to this Prophet and He would relay God’s intentions, commands,
and good will to the people. Like Moses,
this Prophet would intercede for the people.
Like Moses, this Prophet would die.
However, please remember, this Prophet foretold
through Moses would be so much more than even the great man Moses proved to
be. Unlike Moses, Jesus never
sinned. Unlike Moses, Jesus had no human
father, but became incarnate by the Holy Spirit in the virgin, Mary. Unlike Moses, Jesus was crucified at the call
of the people for His death, and unlike Moses, Jesus didn’t stay in the grave,
but He rose on the third day just as He promised His disciples He would. Therefore, we can know with certainty that
Jesus, and only Jesus, can fulfill Moses’ prophecy of a Prophet the people must
hear.
Way back when God gave His commandments to the
people, His voice terrified them, and they pleaded with Moses for intercession
with God so that His power and holiness would not destroy them. Jesus is God’s answer to their plea. Furthermore, like the people of Israel that
Moses had led out of Egypt, you and I needed an intercessor to save us from God’s
wrath and righteous justice. To Moses,
the people had begged, “Do not let me hear the voice of the Lord my God
anymore, and do not let me see this great fire again, or I will die.”
Moses reports, Then the Lord said to me,
“They have done well by saying what they said.
I will raise up a prophet for them from among their brothers, like you,
and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them everything that
I command him.” God sent many
prophets to the Israelites before Jesus came on the scene, but only Jesus spoke
directly from God, and only Jesus could say about what God had previously spoken
through His prophets, “You search the Scriptures because you think you have
eternal life in them. They testify about
me!” (John 5:39)
The Jews of Jesus’ day claimed to be following
the laws of Moses, yet they neglected this most important command, “Listen
to him.” The Jewish leadership,
especially, refused to hear what Jesus was telling the crowds. Instead, they falsely accused Him of
blasphemy and rebellion against authority.
They rightly accused Jesus of mixing with prostitutes and sinners.
You and I can fall into the same class of
Jesus-rejecting thugs if we think ourselves better than others. If we sometimes find ourselves looking down
at the sins others commit while arrogantly assuming we don’t do those things
ourselves, then we too are guilty of rejecting Jesus. Those prostitutes, sinners, tax collectors,
and diseased rejects of society came to Jesus at His invitation, because there
was nowhere else for them to turn. They
recognized that they were lost and condemned without God’s great Prophet
interceding for them. That is what
Jesus’ preaching taught them.
Far too many people of our day seem to think
Jesus isn’t all that important. Far too
often, we may find ourselves viewing His Word as an inconvenience. We may imagine we have more important things
to do than listen to Jesus. Jesus told a
parable addressing those ideas. In
summary, when the king in that parable found a wedding guest not dressed in Jesus’
righteousness, “Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot and
throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth.’ For many are called, but few are
chosen.” (Matthew 22:13-14)
Listen to God’s greatest Prophet. A lot of people are
turned off by the law given in the Bible.
Especially in our times, the human nature in each of us wants to rule in
our lives. It is easy to find ourselves
caught up in the ways of the world.
Moses was warning the people of his day against just such drifting away
from the God who saved them from their slavery in Egypt.
The devil makes all kinds of sin look
attractive to our baser instincts. Yet,
the devil is always a liar and a murderer.
To those who claimed to follow Abraham and Moses yet rejected Jesus and
His teaching, Jesus declared, “You belong to your father, the Devil, and you
want to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and did
not remain standing in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” (John
8:44)
That certainly is a statement of judgment and
condemnation. However, even for those
who rejected Him, Jesus declared God’s plan of salvation. Even for those who hated Him and plotted His
death, Jesus went willingly to the cross to suffer and die. When the mob of soldiers arrived in
Gethsemane to arrest Jesus, He didn’t run or fight or even protest. Rather, Jesus asked them again, “Who
are you looking for?” “Jesus the
Nazarene,” they said. “I told you that I
am he,” Jesus replied. “So if you are
looking for me, let these men go.” (John 18:7-8)
Jesus was no more guilty of rebellion than any
of those who followed Him, but He resolutely took the place of every sinner who
has ever lived as He offered Himself to judgment unto death. The Holy Spirit caused Paul to write, “God
made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become
the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) This word also comes from Jesus, for when He
was returning to His Father in heaven, He comforted His disciples by telling
us, “I am telling you the truth: It is good for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor will
not come to you. But if I go, I will
send him to you.” (John 16:7)
The Counselor did indeed come to those
disciples, and He continues to guide us to Jesus by the power of God’s holy
Word in the Bible. It’s all there so
that we may hear of the forgiveness and salvation won for us by Jesus. By the message recorded for us through the
evangelists, prophets, and apostles, we have learned about God’s salvation plan
for a world of sinners.
None of us deserves to have God welcome us into
His presence. None of us could live the
holiness needed to dwell with God. However,
because of the Word Jesus has given us, you and I can confess together with St,
Paul, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” of whom I am the
worst. But I was shown mercy for this
reason: that in me, the worst sinner, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his
unlimited patience as an example for those who are going to believe in him,
resulting in eternal life.” (1 Timothy 1:15-16)
As the soldiers were nailing Jesus to the
cross, it was for people like you and me, just as much as for those soldiers
and the Jews who demanded that Jesus must die, that Jesus prayed, “Father,
forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) Those soldiers didn’t realize that they had
to nail Jesus to the cross so that they could be forgiven. The Jews didn’t understand that they were
carrying out God’s plan to justify them.
You and I often don’t even realize all the sins we commit. Yet, for us and for the whole world, Jesus
willingly laid down His life, only to take it up again three days later,
because that is how God had it planned from the beginning, so that you and I
could hear Jesus invite us, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you
will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29)
Dear friends, Moses commanded the people to
listen to the Prophet God would send from their midst. Everything about that prophecy points to
Jesus, just like the whole Old Testament does as well. Hear and believe Jesus when He tells us, “Take
heart, son! Your sins are forgiven.”
(Matthew 9:2) Live in the comforting
promise of our Savior, Prophet, and King, when He promises, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he
dies. And whoever lives and believes in
me will never perish.” (John 11:25-26)
Moses warned the people that anyone who refused
to hear would be condemned, and anyone who spoke on behalf of any other god
would suffer destruction. Therefore, put
your trust in Jesus. Listen to God’s
greatest Prophet. Amen.
The peace of
God, which surpasses all understanding, guard and keep your hearts and your
minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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