We are John December 19, 2016

⁷⁶ And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
⁷⁷ to give knowledge of salvation to his people
    in the forgiveness of their sins,
⁷⁸ because of the tender mercy of our God,
Luke 1:76-68 ESV 

Peter writes that Christians are a "royal priesthood".  In Philippians Paul refers to Christians as "saints".  But do we think of ourselves as prophets along the lines of John the Baptist?

In the first chapter of Luke, Zechariah was "was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied" about John the Baptist.  John was to "give knowledge of salvation to his people".  

Too often we think of a prophet to foretells future events or brings forth some startling, awe-inspiring message from on high. And there were times this was the case, but prophets many times were the truth tellers of the day.  In John's case, he told the people of the coming of Jesus.

This is exactly what we should be doing as Christians.  We should be crying out in the wilderness that is our society, "Prepare the way of the Lord!"  Our mouths should proclaim Christ's saving power to a lost world.  We are the modern day prophets.  It is incumbent on the collective Church and each individual the world know Christ came once as a Savior, but will return as a Judge.  John the Baptist prepared the people for Christ's first visit, we must alert the world to His second.

Saint, priest, and prophet.  Some pretty serious job titles for Christians.  Are we up to the task?