Why do you come to church every week? Now, do not get me wrong, I am not here to discourage you from coming every week, but my question is, why do you come to church every week? Or do you know why you even come at all? I hope you answer that question with the realization that if we do not come to church weekly, if we do not get feed regularly on the Word of the Lord and on His Sacraments then we begin to starve spiritually. Regular church and Bible study attendance are very much like everything else you do in life. If you are musician you understand the importance of daily practice. If you are an athlete you understand the importance of daily practice. If you do anything in this world and expect to continue to do it right you need to daily practice. Likewise, if you are a Christian and you are daily being bombarded by the temptations of the devil, the world and your own sinful flesh, then you understand the need to daily be in the Word of God and weekly come to fill up on His Word and Sacraments in order to be able to defend yourself against the devil, the world and your sinful self.
The book of Deuteronomy is kind of a review for the people, the children of Israel, of what God has done for them; how He has been their God and how He has made and kept them as His people. This book shows the love the Lord has for His people. This book also has a call to total commitment to the Lord in worship and obedience.
Our text begins with the Lord’s promise. We read beginning at verse fifteen, “15The 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—16just 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 any more, lest I die.’ 17And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18I 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’” (v.15-18).
Our text is a part of Moses’ farewell speech to the children of Israel. As the Children of Israel are getting ready to move into the promised land, Moses reminds the people that even though he will not be with them any longer that the Lord has promised that He will always have a prophet for the people. Our text reminds us that this promise goes back to the people wanting Moses to intercede for them because they were frightened by God’s presence among them.
This prophet about whom Moses is speaking is one who will speak the Word of the Lord. That is what a prophet does, he does not come bringing his own word, but he comes bringing the word of the Lord. This is a subtle way of telling the people that even if they do not agree with the prophet, they should listen because his words are not his own, but words the Lord is giving him.
The prophet is to be listened to because God speaks through him. The prophet is not to be listened to because when he speaks he says he speaks for God, but the prophet is to be listened to because God says He speaks through him.
And the prophet is to be listened to because of what will happen it he is not listened to. We pick up at verse nineteen, “19And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 20But 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” (v. 19-20).
The Lord will hold that person accountable who does not listen to what the prophet speaks in His name. How does that saying go, “you can run but you can’t hide.” So to with God, He knows the words He gives to the prophet and He knows who does and who does not listen to His prophet. And He will hold that person accountable who does not listen to what the prophet speaks in His name.
But, not only are the people to be held accountable for what God speaks through the prophet, so too the prophet is to be held accountable. If the prophet speaks other than God’s Word he will be held accountable. The prophet is not to speak of his own. He is not to say, “God says this or that,” unless God really said this or that. And what he says that God says will be shown in its fulfillment. If any prophet should say any one thing that is not true, that is it does not happen, then that prophet is a false prophet. Everything the prophet says that is from God must be true or that prophet is a false prophet.
We are also told that the prophet who speaks in the name of other god’s will be put to death. God does not toy around when it comes to His Word and the importance of His Word. He holds His prophets accountable. He holds the false prophets accountable. He holds His people who hear His prophet accountable and He holds those who refuse to hear accountable.
How is this done in our church today? God always has, always does and always will raise up prophets for His people. Today the Lord raises up prophets through the churches in the form of pastors. God calls pastors through the congregation to serve Him. Pastors do not call themselves, but God calls them through the congregation. Specifically the pastor is to serve God by proclaiming His Word, administering the Sacraments and forgiving and retaining the sins of God’s people in that place. Thus we see that pastors are accountable to God for preaching His word in its truth and purity, for rightly administering the sacraments and for rightly forgiving and retaining the sins of the people. And the people, the members of the congregation, are accountable to God for hearing God’s Word, believing God’s Word and doing God’s Word, that is living lives of faith according to God’s Word.
The ultimate prophet, the Lord has raised up for His people is Christ, the Messiah. Jesus is true God and true man. Jesus is our prophet, priest and king. As our prophet He proclaimed God’s word to the people. As our prophet He still today proclaims His Word through the means of grace, the Word and the Sacraments. As our king He rules over us and will rule over us in heaven for eternity. As our priest He intercedes for us. The usual job of the priest was also to make sacrifices for the people, but as our priest Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice of Himself on the cross for us. The shedding of the blood of the thousands of lambs sacrificed before Christ were merely a reminder of the blood that must be shed for our forgiveness. It was Jesus’ blood shed on the cross that earned our forgiveness for us. Moses’ words that the Lord would provide prophets for His people means all the prophets that the Lord has given His people but it also means the ultimate prophet, the Messiah, Jesus Himself.
Today, God has provided us with pastors who are prophets in the sense that they are called by God through the local congregation to proclaim the Word of the Lord. They are to preach God’s Word, rightly dividing Law and Gospel. They are to proclaim God’s Word because He would have us not run after other gods. Let us admit it, we are a people who are in need. We are in need of spiritual guidance. Without something spiritual in our lives we have a void and that void must be filled. And we see how too many people in our world today run after other gods and idols to fill the spiritual void they have in their lives. Our natural inclination is to reject God and to go running after other gods and idols, gods and idols we believe we can appease by our own good character, at least in our own minds. Jesus does not call us sheep because we are warm and wooly. He calls us sheep because we are spiritually near-sighted and will follow almost anything or anyone that will lead us. That is why it is important that we are in the Word, that we read and hear the Word, that we study the Word.
God would not have us run after soothsayers, seers, or psychics of any kind. God does not work through these means which means that those who are soothsayers, seers and psychics must be getting their information from some place other than God. If not God then the only other option would be the devil.
God places a heavy responsibility on our pastors. God would have our pastors speak His Word to His people and not speak another word of any kind to them. God will hold me responsible for what I preach and teach to you, that is why you will always find me cautious when it comes to proclaiming an opinion of any kind that is suspect of not being according to the Word of God.
As God gives us pastors and the Word to the pastors to proclaim to us, God would have us hold our pastors in honor and listen to them. Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. We hear God’s Word and we do God’s Word when we hear it, heed it, and live according to it. Otherwise we are profaning His Holy Precious Word.
God holds pastors accountable, but He also hold us as Christians, as members of this congregation and as members of the Holy Christian Church accountable. Our role as members of this congregation and as Christians in the Holy Christian Church is that we are priests in the priesthood of all believers. The pastor is not a priest. Remember the role of the priest was to offer sacrifices. The pastor does not offer sacrifices, but preaches the Word, administers the sacraments and forgives and retains sins. As priests, Christians offer themselves as living sacrifices to the Lord and they do this as they live lives of faith, demonstrating to the world what it means to be a Christian. And as Christians, we are strengthened and encouraged in our own faith life by making regular and diligent use of the means of grace, by remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy, by being in divine service and Bible class, by having personal and family devotion, by reading and hearing God’s Word, by remembering our baptism, by confessing our sins and hearing the words of absolution, by coming to the Lord’s Table. Through these very means the Lord gives us the strength to live lives of faith, to live lives as priest and to keep us ready to always give an answer for the hope we have in our faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Our text for today is one which reminds us that God has promised that He will always be with us and that He will never leave us nor will He forsake us. He is always with us. He comes to us through His means of grace, through the Word and the Sacraments. He comes to us through these very means to give us the gifts He has to give; forgiveness of sins, faith, strengthening of faith, life, eternal life and salvation. God is a God of good order who gives us the things He gives us in the way, the good order that He gives them. He gives us pastor’s through the calling of the congregations to bring us the Word and the Sacraments. And He holds us accountable, the pastor to proclaim His Word in its truth and purity and the congregation to hear His Word and to do His Word. And He moves in us to rejoice and sing, to God be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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