A Prophet like Moses

Date: 21 December 2025, 9.30 am

Speaker: Ps Daniel Tan Sermon Text: Deuteronomy 18:15-22; Revelation 15:3-4

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TRANSCRIPT

Introduction

Blessed Sunday to everyone.

As we enjoy this season of Christmas, it's easy to be swept up by festive lights, family gatherings, and the many traditions that surround the season.

Singapore is a multicultural, multi-religious society, and so Christmas is celebrated widely even beyond the church.

Many of us may participate in the festive rhythm of decorations, exchanging gifts, gatherings over meals.

But as believers we are reminded that the heart of Christmas is not a cultural celebration or a holiday ritual — but the glorious, astonishing reality that “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.”

Christmas calls us back to worship the God of heaven who humbled Himself in the incarnation, and draws our hearts to worship Him in truth and reverence.

This season, may our worship reflect the Gospel’s call for humility, gratitude, God-glorifying adoration, and renewed affirmation of Christ’s lordship over our lives, our relationships, and our witness to family and friends.  

In light of that, our sermon today seeks to proclaim not a sentimental story or a mere annual commemoration, but the unchanging gospel.

That in Christ, God has sovereignly fulfilled His promises, reversed the curse of sin, and drawn a people to Himself by grace alone, through faith alone, for His glory alone.

Context of Deut 18

To help us appreciate our passage today, may I share briefly the context of Deuteronomy 18.  

In the first part of chapter 18, Moses reminds them of God's gracious provision of worship ministry through the office of the Levitical priests.

Moses goes on the warn them that when they enter the land of Canaan, they will come face to face with detestable worship practices of the people living there.

The Israelites were warned, not to follow them and that such practices were precisely why God is judging the people of Canaan.  

Moses tells them, do not be worried, after I'm gone, God will continue to raise up people who will be His legitimate channel to communicate with the people of Israel.

But specifically, God will raise up for you one unique prophet, like Moses from among them, and it is to him , they shall listen.

Throughout Israel’s history, God kept this promise faithfully. We note the major and minor prophets in the Old Testament who spoke the word of God to His people.

But today, we want to be reminded of the Messianic aspect of this prophesy, who is this one unique prophet like Moses.

In the words of Hebrews 1:1, 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 ...

The Person

I would like to share 6 things that will help us see how Moses’ words were pointing specifically to Jesus Christ.

A prophesy that spans the more than 1200 years gap between Moses and Jesus.

Firstly, though we do see from history a string of prophets, Moses’ words here were in the singular – ‘a prophet’ not ‘prophets’ and it is to ‘him’ and not ‘them that the Israelites should listen to.

Giving us a clue that he was identifying a specific someone.

And so, we see that during the time of John, the Jewish leaders were awaiting the fulfillment of the prophecy of Moses’ words.

They thought John the Baptist was the fulfillment –

Jn 1:19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”

The Jewish leaders knew their Scriptures but John the Baptist was not “The Prophet”. 

The third evidence is from the mouth of Philip, one of the 12 apostles. After Jesus called Philip ....

Jn 1:43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Philip declared that Jesus was the promised Prophet. The one Moses spoke about.

Fourthly, it was not only the religious leaders who were looking out for the promised prophet, even the people, the ordinary folks were searching and anticipating it.

2 incidences to share from the gospel of John:

Jn 6:14 When the people saw the sign that he (Jesus) had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

Jn 7:40 When they heard these (Jesus’) words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”

The people knew their facts - where the Messiah was to come from and so they were sizing Jesus up against the signs they have been taught to look out for.

The fifth evidence is from the words of Apostle Peter.

At Pentecost, empower by the Spirit, Peter preached to thousands and he linked Jesus Christ with the prophet whom Moses referred to in Deuteronomy:

Acts 3:18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ 24 And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.

Our final evidence is from the words of Jesus himself. Jesus said to his listeners,

Jn 5:46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.

Further down in John’s gospel, to validate his claims that he is the prophet whom Moses wrote about, Jesus says he has fulfilled the criteria of a genuine prophet of God which we have just read in Deut 18:18 – I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him:

Jn 12:49 For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

Church, I submit these evidences support the fact that the promises of the Old Testament have been found fulfilled in Jesus Christ and written down for us in the New Testament.

This shows that our God is a promise keeping God.

Each Christmas it is again a timely opportunity to reaffirm our trust in God, whose words are trustworthy and true.

A God, whose promises never fail, who keeps His word and is able to bring everything He desires to fulfillment.

One implication for consideration - at Christmas, as we pray for non-believers, let’s also remember the Jews.

People who believe in the Old Testament like we do, but who have not accepted the New Testament yet.

Those in the Jewish faith have the same roots as us, but they are unable to celebrate Christmas, because they have not accepted the good news that the Prophet like Moses has come in the man, Jesus Christ.

Jesus came from the Jews and he went to the Jews with God's message of Salvation yet, he was rejected by them.

As we celebrate Christmas, let us pray that the Lord will graciously open their eyes, to see and accept Jesus, the prophet God has raised like Moses, who is the Christ.

The Roles

Let's now look at the roles highlighted of Jesus, The Prophet of God

• Mediator

  
  

Verse 16 says, just 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.'

This is the incident of the Israelites at Mt Sinai, where God gave Moses the 10 commandments.

Exodus 19:16 records that as the presence of the Lord came upon Mt Sinai, the people heard thunders and saw lightning and all of them in the camp trembled.

Moses gathered them at the foot of Mt Sinai and Mt Sinai was engulfed in thick smoke and the Lord descended on it in fire.  

Exodus chapter 20, the Lord had spoken the 10 commandments and with the terrifying scene before them, the people standing far off, said the Moses in v19, you speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.

The people were experiencing a Holy and Righteousness God. It must be a terrifying sight to behold God in his Holiness.

Isaiah had a vision of being in God's throne room - as he entered, he heard angelic creatures, proclaiming - Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts and the foundation of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke.

Again, a similar reaction like the Israelites at Mt Sinai, Isaiah cried 'Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.

In this season of Love, let us not forget that the God of the universe is a Holy God and it is terrifying to stand before Him.

But precisely because God is love, God agreed to the people's request that Moses be their mediator.

Because God is love, Paul says 

1 Tim 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

Let's not forget the scene at Mt Sinai and Isaiah's experience. God is holy and we are not.

But Jesus a prophet like Moses has come and is now our mediator.

As we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate that Jesus has come to be the mediator between God and man.

We sinners are protected from a Holy and Just God in Jesus Christ, because Jesus is the acceptable mediator between us and God.  

Now if there wasn't Moses, the people would have to deal with God directly and that would be terrifying.

Today if we do not have Jesus, we would have to deal with a Holy God directly as well and that would even more terrifying.

As a mediator, Christ is reconciling us to God and Paul says, for all of us as believers, God is thus giving us this ministry of reconciliation.

2 Cor 5:18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

Have we given the Christmas Day e-Invitation card to someone yet? Inviting a friend or a relative to our Christmas service is a part of our ministry of reconciliation.

Let us desire that our friends and relatives have Christ as their mediator before a Holy God.

• Communicator  

Deut 18:15 says, we are to listen to this prophet like Moses. V18 says God will put his words in the prophet's mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

The 2nd role of the Prophet like Moses is to be God's communicator. This is incarnational ministry.

Have you watched the show Ant-man? I watched it with my family when it came out.

I wasn't quite thrilled to watch it initially. I thought, what so good about a movie that shows how a man can become the size of an ant?

But I must admit it turned out to be quite entertaining.

In the movie, the inventor of the suit that can shrink a man into the size of an ant, is able to communicate with ants and insects through a special devise that he wears behind his ear.

That devise enables him to communicate so that the ants and insects can understand him and obey his commands.

The gulf between God and man is like the inventor and the ants. There is no way man like the ants can understand.

Thus, it must take the inventor to find a means to communicate with the ants.

God graciously communicates in the way that humans can understand.

Again as Hebrews says, He communicated in many times and in many ways in the past, but he has given his ultimate communication to us in the God-man, Jesus Christ.

In a sense, like the ant-man, God in Jesus Christ has limited himself to space and time and condescend to be like one of us.

In Jesus Christ, a prophet like Moses, God did not just rely on humans to communicate his thoughts to man, God himself became a man so that he can communicate with us face to face.

God loved us so much that He sent Jesus The Prophet of God to communicate with us.

Jesus said to Thomas, if you know me, you would also know my Father also, from now on, you do know him and have seen him.  

Because Jesus is THE Prophet, there is no one else after him. He is God's final and fullest revelation.

Thus, at Christmas, when we celebrate the coming of Jesus, we celebrate that God is directly communicating with us in ways we can understand.

So many people want God to speak to them. So many try all sorts of ways to reach God.

But only Christians know the correct communication channel, it is Jesus Christ.

For those of us who have acknowledged this divine communication channel, we need to reflect on the command of God the Father at Jesus transfiguration.

As Peter, James and John behold Jesus, talking with Moses and Elijah, a bright cloud overshadowed them and God said 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, listen to him.'

A proper celebration of the fact that God communicates to us through Jesus Christ, is the humble and obedient desire of listening to Jesus.

• Deliverer

Though not explicit in this text in Deut 18, we see that as the prophet of God, Moses was God's designated human instrument to deliver the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery.

In Exodus 3, when Moses encountered God at the burning bush, God said to Moses in Exodus 3: 9 &10

Ex 3:9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

10 plagues God afflicted upon the Egyptians through the hands of Moses. The final plague was the killing of all the first-born Egyptians.

To the Israelites, they will forever remember it as the Passover.

Its significance is also highlighted in the fact that the Passover makes the first month and the beginning of the Jewish calendar.

We know the Passover is observed by slaughtering a lamb without blemish, a male which is a year old. The Israelites are to sacrifice one lamb for each household.

On that first Passover night, the Israelites took the blood of this sacrificial lamb and put it on their doorpost of their home.

Exodus 12:13 says, 'the blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.'

With the death of the first born, Pharaoh let the Israelites go and Moses, in faith, led the people across the red sea into freedom.

Jesus is the prophet like Moses, for he is our deliverer from slavery to sin. Not only is he the deliverer, he is also the sacrificial lamb.

As Hebrews says, Jesus entered once for all into the holy place, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

Since the fall of mankind in Genesis 3, God the Holy Judge pronounced that all of us who stand in the docks are guilty sinners who deserve only the punishment of eternal death.

Praise be to God that Jesus the Son of the Judge, now has come forward as our advocate.

He says, I love them so much, that I will not cling on to my status as God, but instead I will become like them, I will come into the world, in the flesh, and then, I will represent them, on the cross.

I will pay their penalty fully by offering up myself.

God the judge has accepted this sacrifice of Jesus and it is recorded in the history books of the world dated in the first century A.D.

Moses delivered the Israelites from slavery to freedom and life. Once they were in bondage, now they are free.

Jesus came to delivery us from slavery to sin so that we may have freedom from sin and eternal life.

As we prepare this Christmas to understand the significance of ‘Light in the darkness’, today, may we appreciate Jesus’ role as our Mediator, as God's Communicator and as our Deliverer.  

The bible plainly informs us of who Jesus is and what he has done. With that, we cannot just walk away thinking life is as per normal.

The facts requires a response from us. We either accept or we reject this truth.

The Response

The acceptable response may I submit is found in Rev 15. Moses is associated with the 10 plagues. Here at the end of history, the bible foretells of the 7 plagues.

These 7 plagues tell of the wrath of God on the earth's inhabitants but for those who stand firm in Jesus Christ, instead of fear, they will be singing:

Rev 15:3 And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God and the song of the Lamb saying Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. 4 Who will not fear O Lord and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All the nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.

The song of Moses was recorded in Exodus 15 and it speaks of thanksgiving and gratitude to God for his deliverance over Egypt.

The song of the Lamb in Revelations, belongs to the persecuted who are in Jesus Christ.

In joining these 2 songs together, the Apostle John thus tells us of the continued and complete deliverance God gives in His son Jesus Christ.

Not just over physical slavery, Jesus has secured victory over Satan and death, over spiritual slavery.

The acceptable response is to praise God for His deliverance.

We do so by affirming that God is the All-Mighty God, accepting that His ways are just and true, affirming that only God is Holy and thus only His standards count.

And though we do not see it yet, but at the end of time, our steadfast belief in his Lordship will be proved right, for all nations, will come and will bow down and worship God.

If you had been living in Singapore during World War II and witness the surrender of the Japanese on 12 Sept 1945 at 11.10 am at City Hall, how would you feel?

Since 15 Feb 1942, you have been oppressed by another nation and now, after 3 and a half years, you are finally free!

I’m sure there will be a mixture of positive emotions - joy, gladness, thankfulness, release from bondage, freedom, jubilation.

This is the feeling that is portrayed through the song of Moses and the song of the lamb.

Christmas is the pivotal event that ushers in the final victory over Satan. The seed of the woman, has crushed the head of the serpent.

It is right that Christians celebrate with all our worth each year as we remember the beginning of the end of Satan and the culmination of God's salvation plan.

So, let us burst with overwhelming joy at the arrival of the Christ Child at Christmas. Let us give Him the highest adoration and heartfelt praise that is due to His Name.  

As we sing our closing response hymn later, let’s appreciate how the hymn beautifully summarizes that Christ has fulfilled all of Scripture’s hopes.

He is the true and greater Moses — the perfect covenant-keeping Prophet who brings redemption and life.

Amen.

Reflection Questions

1. How has Jesus' role as Mediator, Communicator and Deliverer help you appreciate Christmas in a deeper way?

2. What would it mean for you to identify with the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb?