Amen. Well, I trust y'all had a great Thursday, huh? You remember what Thursday was? What was Thursday? Well, it was the International Day of Prayer. What else was Thursday? Ah, it was a Sension Day. Now, we know who was in church last Sunday and who wasn't, right? Okay, let Thursday was a Sension Day and and we preached on the ascension last Sunday because we wanted to emphasize that this is an important part of the work of Christ. That, yes, Christ has died for us. Yes, Christ was risen for us, but you know, the gospel story does not stop there. He was, he's ascended into heaven and he is seated now on the right hand of majesty. And so what we wanted to do last Sunday and this Sunday is talk about those two very things, the ascension of Christ on the one hand and then the Session of Christ, namely his being seated on the right hand of majesty, what is called the Session of Christ on the other hand. And so last week, we spoke about the ascension and this week, we're going to speak about the Session of Christ. So what I want, but what I want to understand here, folks, is that look, as a church, we do a pretty good job, as we mentioned last week, of looking at the incarnation and birth of Christ. We do a pretty good job of understanding, you know, that, that in Christ, that, you know, he took on flesh, he became a man, he dwelt among us. John says, and we beheld his glory as the only begotten of father, full in grace of truth, that the influshing of Christ, the incarnation of Christ, and we celebrate that at a, at a time, you know, we call Christmas every year. And in fact, I would wager that most of you, if you would open up your calendars or, or open up your day timers, you would, you would probably have something around Christmas time circled. Time you're going to take off or time you're going to set aside or time you're going to spend with family, there's, you know, we do a pretty good job of setting that time aside. And then we don't do a bad job either of looking at the, the suffering and the passion and the death of Christ. We set that, we set time aside every year in our church calendar, if you will, to look at the, you know, the, the suffering and the death and the burial of Christ. We call that holy week. We said a whole week aside in our church calendar to take a look at those things. And that's important. But then, and then we do a pretty good job of setting Easter Sunday aside the day in which Christ, you know, was risen from the dead. And that's a glorious day. And it's a glorious time. And we do a pretty good job of emphasizing that because we understand its importance for us. But then it's almost like for most of the church, we kind of stop there and we go back to whatever routine we previously had before those things. And I want to submit to you this morning. I want to suggest to you this morning that we do that to our own herbs. We do that to our own harm because, look, Christ's work is not finished. And that's what we looked at last week when we looked at the, you know, the work of Christ is continuing. Yes, you know, the work of his, for our torment was finished on the cross, but that doesn't mean that Christ is not working now. When we look at Acts 1 last week, we saw that the ascension is a necessary part of understanding the work of Christ. It's a necessary part of understanding the work of the Holy Spirit. And it's a necessary part of understanding our work today. And that's what we looked at in Acts 1 last week. This week I want us to see that, that the three offices of Christ, namely Christ as our prophet, Christ as our priest and Christ. And Christ as our king also have to do with his ascension and his being seated on the throne. Typically when we think of Christ as our prophet, when we think of Christ as our priest, we think of that, typically in terms of Christ's humiliation, that is in his earthly ministry. But I want you to see this morning that this has to do with his, with his exalted, heavenly, glorious, kingly, majestic ministry. And so if you look with me in the book of Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, I want us to take a look at the work of Christ as it is depicted through his offices as the prophet, the priest, and the king. Now here's what I want you to see as well, beloved. This has been a common way for, for biblical scholars, for theologians, for Bible students to look at the work of Christ, to look at it through his offices in terms of being a prophet and a priest and a king. So it's a handy way if you would look at the work of Christ. But what I want you to see, a lot of people are aware of that. Christ was our final prophet, Christ was our final priest, Christ was our final king. And a lot of people are aware of that. But what I want you to see is that theologians for a long time have understood that these three offices correspond to three consequences of sin in the fall in our lives. Namely, our ignorance, our guilt and tyranny, the effects of sin, ignorance, guilt and tyranny, so that the office of Christ as a prophet corresponds with our ignorance. We are ignorant of ourselves, the truth about ourselves, the truth about God and the truth about the world, guilt, we stand before a holy and righteous God. And because of the sin of Adam and because of our actual sins, we stand before him guilty and tyranny, we are under the tyranny of the world and the flesh and the devil. And so these three things, our ignorance, our guilt and our tyranny, you see, the answer for those things are seen in these three offices, Christ as our prophet, Christ as our priest and Christ as our king. And let me unpack this a little bit as we look at verse one. It says, in times past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed heir of all things. You see, in times past the author who was in God spoke through the office of the prophet, the office of the prophet was one of the Old Testament biblical offices. It was one of three, the prophet, the priest and the king. And what the author of Hebrew is saying in times past God spoke in many ways and diverse ways through the prophets. Now the role of the prophet was typically this, the prophet was seen as representing God to the people, the role and function of the prophet was to represent God to the people. Now in some of the higher worship traditions, if you look in the Anglican church or if you look in the Roman Catholic church, sometimes you see this depicted symbolically for people by the function of the priest as he officiates over the mass. And what you will see is at various times in the mass, the priest will face the people. And as the priest is facing the people, he is depicting, he is symbolizing the role of Christ, the final priest, our prophet rather, speaking to the people, revealing God to the people. And so the role of the prophet was to reveal God to the people, was to represent God to the people. And that's the way that's the way the prophet function. He was to represent God to the people. Now this corresponds with our ignorance, our ignorance about ourselves, our ignorance about God and our ignorance about the world in which we live, the truth about ourselves, the truth about God and the truth about the world in which we live. Ignorance is often symbolized in scripture and elsewhere as blindness, isn't it? Ignorance means that we are blind to the truth about ourselves, about God and about the world. So ignorance is often symbolized in scripture as blindness. The role of the prophet was to reveal God to the people. Sometimes past God spoke through our forefathers and prophets at many times in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us through his son. In other words, Jesus as the final prophet is the one who reveals God to us as he really is. That corresponds with the human problem, the human predicament of our ignorance, which is the result of our sin and our fall. I don't know how many of you remember the story by H. G. Wells called the country of the blind, but in this story by H. G. Wells he's talking about a group of people that live back in these hills and a plague strikes them with blindness. And soon all the people in this little countryside village are struck with blindness and then it goes from generation to generation to generation to generation so that after a while there is no one alive who remembers any other condition but the state of blindness. Isn't anyone alive that actually remembers anyone who could ever see and so their whole orientation about themselves, about God, about the world is one in which the site and vision play no part. They are blind. They have always been blind and they've never known a time when it was different. I don't know if you've been reading or following the news this week, but did you read in the paper or hear on the news this week that they've actually found a cure for some forms of blindness. Did you read about that? Did anybody read about that? Nobody's read about that. What would you guys do without me? Here's one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in the history of the modern world. They've got a cure for blindness. And you don't know anything about it. Thank you, Charlotte. One of you read it in the paper. Yeah, they have a gene. They've located a gene and they take a gene. They put it in the syringe and they inject it into your eye and it cures certain kinds of blindness. A man by the name of Robert Johnson just two weeks ago was part of a focus group. He was one of the first people cured by this treatment of his blindness. He can see this form of blindness as a degenerative disease. You're born seeing partially but then it gets worse and worse and worse and then you can't see it all. And this treatment cures these people with a particular defect and they think that it can be generalized into other forms of blindness, but it cures people of blindness. It's an amazing thing, isn't it? It's a remarkable discovery. But as I read that, I thought about this. I thought about the human predicament, the human problem, which is a result of sin. Namely, our ignorance, our blindness. And I was thinking about what is the difference here between physical blindness on the one hand and spiritual blindness on the other? There was a difference between the people that HG Wells was writing about in the country of the blind and their physical malady and our spiritual sickness, our spiritual blindness. What's the main difference? And it dawned on me that the differences is that everyone who is blind knows that they're blind. That is something that is part of their condition, the fact of their blindness and the knowledge of their blindness. Do you see it? No pun intended. People who are physically blind understand that they cannot see. But in spiritual blindness, beloved, the dilemma is this. It is not only that they are blind. That's only the half of it. It's that they are blind and yet think that they can see. Spiritual blindness is the state, the condition of being blind and yet all the while thinking that you see with more clarity than anyone else including God. That beloved is not only ignorance, it is a profound form of ignorance and blindness and sightlessness. God spoke through the prophets and of whole variety of ways and all of his multimedia, if you will. But now today he speaks through his son, Jesus, the Christ and the office of prophet is your cure for blindness. He opens your eyes and he makes you realize that not only were you blind, but you were blind when you thought you could see that's a profound cure that is infinitely greater than whatever cure we have recently discovered to cure physical blindness. People who are blind and know they can't see. And so Jesus says the prophet. Now, how does that apply to the ascension? How does that apply to Christ's role in heaven? Well, it applies this way, beloved, that first of all through revelation. This is what it means that now he speaks to his son through revelation but also through illumination. See, through revelation, that's what we have here. We have the teachings of Jesus, if you will, in the New Testament here. It's been revealed through revelation. But then Jesus ascends and he gives us the Holy Spirit and what is the role and function of the Holy Spirit? One of the roles and function of the Holy Spirit is to illuminate for us. Let's see what has already been revealed and that is a cure for our ignorance because the Bible will tell us the truth about ourselves and the truth about God and the truth about the world in which we live. It's a cure for our ignorance. It's a cure for our blindness, the prophetic office of Christ. The Christ is not particularly not only depicted here as a prophet, but is also depicted as a priest. He's spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the universe. The son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful word after he had provided purification for sins. He goes on to say, you see here, here is the imagery of the role and function of the priest in the Old Testament, the office of the priest. Here, as a priest, you see Christ is pictured as the cure for our guilt. One of the consequences of the fall, one of the consequences of sin is the guilt of impolution of sin. Christ is our priest as being portrayed as the one here who has the cure for our guilt. And so the office of priest corresponds with the human predicament of guilt. Now, from wonder what people do with their guilt. You can deny it. You can suppress it. You can ignore it. We have always of dealing with guilt. But at the end of the day, when you're by yourself, when you're all alone, when there's nobody next to you, when there aren't any more distractions, when the TV is off, when your iPod is off, when your iPhone is off, when you're not busy looking at who sent you email or who sent you a text message. At the end of the day, when it's just you and you alone, and you begin to feel some of the aloneness of being in the universe, whether you might be in a crowd of people or an empty room, if you are a human being whose conscience has not been seared, then you feel something of the weight of the guilt of sin and its mystery. And the real question is, beloved, is what do you do with your guilt? The answer to that is, is Christ as our priest as the once for all sacrifice for sin has dealt with your guilt. He is the cure for guilt. And what that is the save of it is what I think the New Testament says through and through and it's pictured and portrayed and symbolized for us in the Old Testament. Then that is that each and every one of us need a priest. You cannot go through life without a priest. You must have a mediator. You cannot go to God by yourself. You must. It is absolutely necessary to have a priest. And what the writer of Hebrews is saying is Jesus, the Christ is your priest, and he is your cure for your guilt. This past Friday, May 2 was my anniversary. Carol and I, my wife, have been married for 22 years. Yeah, you can clap how she has stayed married to me. I have no earthly idea. Well, in the mouth of two or three witnesses, let everything be confirmed. I don't know why either. And I seem to prove that over and over again on my anniversary as well. My wife and I do this sort of for fun, but sometimes it gets serious. But she was asking me, you know, we like to banter back and forth. It's an art form. And we always like to see who can get the best of each other and who can come up on top. And my wife is a smart lady. And she knows exactly how to sing me, but I do it pretty good. I hold my own. I do a pretty good job myself. And Friday I came in after a couple of appointments and I looked at my wife's back tire and I said, honey, I told you last week you better get some air in that tire because it's just about flat. And I said, it's dangerous. You can't drive around with a flat back tire. And she said to me, well, any other man in the church would take his wife's car and get the tire fixed. Yeah, I knew y'all like that just fine. And so I'm thinking, you know, I really don't want to do this, you know. But after all, it is my anniversary. And so, you know, and then it dawns on me, you know, one of the things that my wife does is she begins to change places where she hides money. Okay. Now, you all know every week or every paper I give my wife all my money. Okay. And then she hides it. And she pays all the bills. And then I try to find my whole goal in life is to try to figure out where she hides the money so I can get a little bit of a back. All right. So I get my allowance. And then I look for the hiding place. And, you know, I don't, I just take a little bit, not a lot, but, you know, just enough to get by. And so I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, isn't that stealing? No, you're missing the point. It's my money. Okay. Stealing is taking what doesn't belong to you. Okay. This is my money. All right. I'm letting her manage it for me. But, you know, I'm not stealing. Okay. So I remembered the last time or last several times. She doesn't know how long I've been watching this go down. But the last several times, I realize that my wife had been hiding the money and the glove compartment of her car. Now, this is, this is, this is really strange to me. Okay. I'm her husband. All right. Who she trusts somewhat. And yet she would rather put the money of, you know, you know, the, the spendable and disposable income that we have for that week and envelope in the glove compartment of her car. She drives a convertible. And she works in pine hills. All right. Now, so what that tells me is my wife would rather have a criminal. She doesn't even know steal all of our money than allow me to get 20 stinking bucks. So all this is, you know, this is how all this is going through my mind in 20 seconds. All right. So I decide now I'm going to be a good husband and take the car and get the tire fixed. No alter your motives. I promise you. And so I go in there. I like the glove compartment. I see the envelope. I take 20 dollars out, put it in my pocket. I get air in the tires. I check all of her tires. They're all way out of whack. I take her car back to the garage. I walk into the house. I still got my sunglasses on and my wife says how much money did you take it? Now, trust me, I know how to play it off. I am an expert at playing it off, especially if I still got my sunglasses on. You are not going to be able to read me. And so I said, money, take what money? What money are you talking about? I said, you better give me some money. I need some money. I'm going to meet Mike. It's a few minutes. I'm going to need some money. So she goes out to the glove compartment. She gets 20 dollars and she gives me 20 more dollars. So now I'm thinking, I'm home, baby. I'm all the way there. I just pulled off one of one of my best scams. And so she pulls out the envelope and she starts looking through it. And you know, she doesn't really know how much is in there. But it looks a little white. You know what I mean? And I see this look come over her face. And then she says, let me check your pockets. Now, I kind of thought this might happen. So I took the, I took the, I had my money in my left pocket where she knows I always keep it. So I took the 20 and I put it in my back pocket thinking, you know, I can play this off through the front two pockets. And then I can maybe be out of the house before she thinks about getting to the back pockets. And so, you know, she checks my front pocket. And there's exactly the right amount of money is supposed to be there. She checks my right pocket with my license and credit card and so forth. You know, and then it's just about, I'm just about home free. And then I'm getting ready to walk out the door and she says, let me check your back pockets. So I'm standing there and she puts the hand of that one left pocket. There's nothing there. And I'm going, please don't check the other pocket. And she puts her hand in there and sure enough she's going for that. And I ran out the door. I ran completely out the door. I was standing in the middle of the road. Now I'm laughing my head off because I know I just been busted, you know. Anyways, so anyways, I did get caught for taking 20 hours on my anniversary from my wife. I just wanted you all to know that. But the reason why I'm telling you this story is for this purpose. That same Friday I did meet with Mike Betis and we were talking and I shared that story with him. And as I was telling the story, Mike said something to me that I knew was perfect for this message. And we were, of course, laughing and joking. But what he said was serious. He said, my brother, you need a priest. And see, that's true, isn't it? We all need a priest for the guilt of our sin. I need a priest. I can't go to God without a priest. I need a priest who paid the ones for all sacrifice. But I need a priest today who has seated in heavenly places who is interceding on my behalf, who has microred this morning, who intercedes continuously, continually on our behalf Christ right now as your high priest is interceding for you. Because he has ascended into heaven and he is seated at the right hand of God after he says he provided purifications for sins. Look at what it says. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty and heaven. Love of that is his throne. He sat down on his throne. He sat down. That's what we mean by the word session. This is the session of Christ that he has seated on the throne at the right hand of majesty. That he is in complete control. That everything is subject to him. And that as our king, as we confess this morning, he subdues all of his people to himself. He protects and defends his people. And he conquers all of his and our enemies bar none. Well, this is your risen Lord. This is your ascended Lord. This is your Lord, the king, the ruler. The one who reigns from his throne, there is nothing out of his control, nothing that is happening to you right now, is out of his control. There's not one maverick molecule in the universe. He is the king. He is the king of your hearts. He's the king of your heads. He is the king of the church. He is the king of this earth. And he is the king of heaven. This is your prophet, priest and king. And he provides a triple cure for you as prophet, priest and king. He gives you a triple cure, a cure for your ignorance, a cure for your guilt and a cure for the tyranny in your life. Don't you understand that sin is a tyranny. It's a slavery. Don't you understand that Satan is tyrannical? It's a tyranny. But he comes, and he breaks the bonds of that tyranny. So that you no longer answer to them, but you bow and answer to him. And all of his glory is splendor and his majesty. The three offices of Christ's prophet, priest and king, and the triple cure that they provide for you for your ignorance and for your guilt and for the tyranny in your life. Beloved, come to your king. Come to your priest. Come to the prophet and receive this cure for your souls and your lives. Have my father. We thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ. We thank you for his death. We thank you for his resurrection. We thank you for his ascension. We thank you for his session that he has seated at the right hand of majesty on high. And we praise him. And we worship him. And we exalt him. And we magnify him. And we give him glory and honor for his wisdom and his power and his strength. And what we thank you, that he is our prophet and that he is our priest and that he is our king. And with him comes this triple cure for our ignorance, our guilt and the tyranny of sin. And we give you thanks and praise for that in his name, the name which is above every name, the name in which every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.