Listen:  88 Question 1

While Jesus was indeed a prophet, He was much, much more than just a prophet.  Jesus is God, and the Son of God.  He is our great high priest and our advocate with the Father.  While there were some prophets mentioned after the time of Christ on the earth, Christ spoke with the authority of being God.  Let’s read Acts 21:10, “And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus.”  Here we learn of a New Testament prophet.  The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:19-20, “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.”  We learn here that along with the apostles, there were also New Testament prophets that laid the foundation of the church.  Note that the work of the apostles and prophets are no longer needed today.  Their role was to lay the foundation to the church.  Since that foundation has been laid, we now build upon that foundation.

Let’s read Hebrews 1:1-4, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”  In the days of the Old Testament writings, God chose different men and designated them as prophets.  People such as Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others are Old Testament prophets.  However, according to what we just read in Hebrews 1:1-4, the Lord now speaks to us in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as is the proper rendering of that verse.  It’s not that we have personally heard or seen the Lord, but we have what he spoke, and caused to be recorded, for our direction.  We have the Bible, God’s Word.

In this portion, we see that God highly honors His Son, even as we should also honor Him in all things. Christ is the heir of all things.  The Lord Jesus said to His Father in John 17:10, “And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.”  It was by Christ that God made the worlds as we read in Colossians 1:15-16 which says that Christ is, “…the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.”

Hebrews 1:3-4 tells us that it is Christ who is the brightness of the glory of God; He is the express image of God; He upholds all things by the word of His power.  It is Christ, and Christ alone, who has purged, or cleansed us from our sins.  1 Peter 2:24 says of Christ, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”  Having finished the work of salvation for us, the Lord Jesus sat down at His Father’s right hand.  Hebrews 10:12-14, speaks of the Lord Jesus.  That says, “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”  Christ was made so much better than the angels by virtue of the fact that He is the Son of God.  This refers to His essential being.  It was as a man that Christ was humbled as we read in Hebrews 2:9, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”

What a savior!  What a great and glorious God is our Lord Jesus!  For anyone, such as Mohammad, to reduce the Lord to being simply a prophet and then put himself on the same level of the Lord Jesus is appalling.  Let’s take heed and remember the words of the Lord in Matthew 24:11, “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.”  The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 2:18, “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.”  An antichrist is one that speaks against the glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Mohammad is both a false prophet and an antichrist.  (88.1)