Prophet, Priest, and King: Why Jesus Is Everything You're Looking For

Meta Description: We all ask three deep questions: What is true? What's wrong with me? Who's in control? The book of Hebrews opens with a stunning answer to all three. URL Slug: prophet-priest-and-king-jesus-everything-youre-looking-for Featured Image: A single ray of sunlight breaking through a dense morning fog over an open landscape — evoking the sermon's imagery of the fog burning away when the sun rises

Everyone is asking the same three questions. We don't always say them out loud, but they're underneath almost everything we do.

What is true? What's wrong with me, and what can be done about it? Who is really in control?

This past Sunday, we kicked off our new series in the book of Hebrews — a series we're calling Draw Near — and right out of the gate, this ancient letter hits us with one of the most breathtaking openings in all of Scripture. No warm-up. No greeting. Just the main course, set right in front of us.

The Most Stunning Opening in Scripture

Hebrews 1:1–3 reads:

"Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

I've always thought that if you were to rank the great opening passages of Scripture — Genesis 1, John 1 — Hebrews 1 belongs right alongside them. And what makes it extraordinary is that in just a few verses, the author answers all three of those deep questions we carry around every day.

Jesus Is the Prophet We Need — The Final Word

We are all looking for someone to tell us what's true. We want a voice we can trust, a word that actually makes sense of our lives. And we have more voices competing for that role than any generation in history. Open your phone and there are thousands of them — telling you how to maximize your potential, fix your relationships, live your best life.

The problem isn't that every one of those voices is wrong. Some of it might even be helpful. The real problem is the authority we give them. Whoever gets to answer the big questions for you — what a human being is, what life is for, what's real and what's right — that person has become your prophet.

Hebrews says our God speaks. He has always spoken. He spoke through Moses, through David, through Isaiah and Jeremiah — through history, poetry, prophecy, and vision. But then something decisive happened. As Galatians puts it, "in the fullness of time," the Son of God came. And Hebrews says the movement is unmistakable: many times, many ways, many prophets — and then one Son.

The prophets would say, "Thus says the Lord." Jesus came and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you." The prophets carried the word of God. Jesus is the Word embodied. He is, as verse 3 says, "the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature." Want to know what God is like? Look at Jesus. Want to know how God responds to sinners, to suffering, to temptation? Look at Jesus — not just his teaching, but his life. He didn't just give us propositions about suffering. He suffered. He didn't just command us to love our enemies. He actually did it.

The honest question Hebrews presses us to ask is this: When Jesus' words conflict with the voice of my culture, my preferred politics, or even my own conclusions — who wins?

Jesus Is the Priest We Need — The Once-for-All Sacrifice

The second question we all ask is harder to admit: What's wrong with me, and what can I do about it?

C.S. Lewis captured it well in Mere Christianity when he wrote that God is "the only comfort, but also the supreme terror — the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from."

We all sense that we've broken something — some deep cosmic agreement — and that guilt erodes the soul. So we try to fix it. Some of us use achievement. Some use morality ("at least I'm not like them"). Some pour themselves into activism or causes, hoping to balance the scales. These aren't meaningless attempts — they reveal a real and legitimate need. But they're band-aids. None of them can do what we actually hope they'll do.

The Old Testament sacrificial system was labor-intensive, costly, and unending — because human sin was unending. Many sins. Many sacrifices. But Hebrews says: one Son. One great high priest who, as verse 3 tells us, made "purification for sins" — once and for all. What happened on that cross 2,000 years ago is just as effective today as it was then. As we sang on Sunday: your blood is still speaking, your love is still reaching.

Jesus Is the King We Need — The One Who Can Deliver

The third question: Who's really in control?

We've watched generation after generation place hope in leaders and institutions, only to see those hopes collapse. And yet something in us keeps reaching for a good ruler — someone with real power who will actually use it for our good.

Hebrews says Jesus is the only king who can promise you the world and actually deliver. Look at verse 2 again: he was "appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world." When Jesus says in Matthew 5, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth," that's not wishful thinking. It's a promise from the one who owns it. When he says, "I go to prepare a place for you," he can make good on that. When Paul writes in Romans 8 that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus — Jesus can guarantee it, because all of creation is his.

And then Hebrews drops this line that you could spend a lifetime meditating on: "He upholds the universe by the word of his power."

The hands that uphold the universe were the hands that were pierced for you. And Ephesians 3:20 tells us that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is the power at work within us right now. That's a good king.

Your Homework This Week

As I've been sitting with this passage since Sunday, I keep coming back to the closing question the author builds toward in Hebrews 2:1:

"Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it."

He knows the human heart. He knows we drift. So here's what I want to leave with you this week — three honest questions to sit with:

1. Who has the final word in your life? Whose voice carries the most weight and authority? That person has become your prophet.
2. When guilt hits, where do you run? What do you reach for to soothe your conscience? That has become your priest.
3. Where is your hope anchored? Who are you trusting to get you — and the world — to where it needs to go? That has become your king.

Hebrews isn't saying those desires are bad. It's saying they're misplaced. There is one who has come — the final prophet, the great high priest, the king of kings — and he alone is worthy of the trust we keep giving to everyone else.

Don't drift. Draw near.

We're spending the next three months in Hebrews together. If you missed Sunday's message, you can watch the full sermon here. And if you're looking for a place to go deeper with these questions in community, I'd encourage you to look into joining a small group — there's no better place to wrestle with what we're learning together.

Social Media Excerpt (Facebook/Instagram): We're all asking the same three questions: What is true? What's wrong with me? Who's really in control? The book of Hebrews opens with a stunning claim — everything you're looking for is found in one person. Read this week's blog post and sit with three honest questions that might just change how you go into your week. 👇

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