Our name | Mission | Vision | Leaders Ministries | Schedule | Directions | Contact Home   Gateway Church gathers for worship Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Location: 6425 Jefferson Rd. (Hwy. 129) in Athens, Georgia. For directions, click here. Ministry of the Word: Recent sermons Our quarterly e-magazine Gateway Today For the Gateway family Pastor Jerry's Weekly E-Mail A GATEWAY SERMON The gift of prophecy (Third in the series, Spiritual Gifts in Corporate Worship) Jerry Varnado, pastor Gateway Church, Athens GA June 16, 2002 Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7) This text, from the Old Testament book of Amos, is quoted a good bit today, especially by those who give a great deal of emphasis to the gift of prophecy in the church. And certainly this verse does have something to say to us about the prophetic gift mentioned in the New Testament. Sermons in this series 1-Introduction to Spiritual Gifts 2-The Enabling Gifts of the Holy Spirit 3-The Gift of Prophecy 4-The Gifts of Tongues and Interpretation of Tongues 5-The Gift of Healing 6-Avoiding the Negatives 7-The Gift of Exhortation 8-The Gifts of Knowledge, Wisdom, and Faith 9-The Gift of Healing, pt. 2: Healing and the Nature of God 10-The Discerning of Spirits But I want to begin this discussion of prophecy by distinguishing the role of the prophet in the Old Testament from the role of those who have prophetic ministry in the New Testament church. Under the old covenant, God usually would raise up an individual who would become known as the "man of God," or "the prophet of the LORD." Often these well-known prophets were political figures, even though they were usually at odds with government leaders of their time. God used the prophets in the political arena to reveal His plan and purpose and to call the nation to account. Through the proclamation of the prophet, God would try to move Israel into conformity with his standards and desires for the nation. Yes, we do read about "schools" of prophets in Old Testament times, but throughout the history of Israel, only a handful of prophets rose to visible importance. The prophet was the chosen leader through whom God revealed Himself. The prophet was God's major avenue of revelation. Prophets in the New Testament Then came a major shift when the old covenant gave way to the new. Under the old covenant, the Holy Spirit was given only to a select few who were called to fulfill special roles among God's people. All that changed when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost. Look with me at Acts 2:17-18. Peter is preaching to a large crowd, and he quotes a prophecy from the Old Testament book of Joel: "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy." Under the new covenant, foretold by Joel and announced by Peter, God pours out His Spirit not on a select few but "on all people." The Holy Spirit is given to all believers. And with the Spirit come spiritual gifts through which the church can know the will of God. In light of that, I believe we should now view prophecy and prophets in the church in a little different light than prophecy and prophets in the Old Testament. In the church age, the prophet is no longer the single source of divine revelation. In fact, there are several avenues of revelation, and we'll talk about those as we explore various spiritual gifts in the coming weeks. But even though things today are not as they were in Old Testament times, Amos 3:7 -- the text I opened with today -- does have something to say to us about prophecy in the church. Remember it says: "Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets." What we learn from this verse is that God isn't interested in surprising His people. He doesn't generally hide His will from us. On the contrary, He desires to reveal His will to us, so we can understand it and follow it. No, we don't have the same kind of prophets that God raised up in Old Testament times, but prophecy is still critically important -- and the Bible is clear that God has given the gift of prophecy into the church. Years ago I heard Peter Lord, a long-time Baptist pastor in Florida, make a statement that has really stuck with me. He said, "We cannot live New Testament Christianity without hearing from God." You see, God desires that we live in such close fellowship with Him that He can communicate to us His truth and direction, so that we can follow His guidance and know His will for our lives. This is why prophecy is a critically important spiritual gift -- a gift we modern Christians have treated much too lightly even to the point of total neglect. The penalty for neglecting God's word When God speaks, we had better listen and obey. Look with me at another passage from Amos -- Amos 8:11-12. God is speaking: "The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine through the land -- not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it." This is a passage about judgment. God says He's going to judge the people, and part of the judgment is that He's going to withdraw His word. He is going to stop speaking to them. Now, this is a prophecy of what God intended to do, at a specific time, because of the people's rebellion. Amos may have been prophesying what we now call the "inter-testamental period" -- the time from end of Malachi until John the Baptist came as the voice of one crying in the wilderness. During that period -- 400 years -- there was no prophet in Israel. But regardless of what particular time period the prophet foresaw, Amos reveals to us God's general attitude toward -- and the penalty for -- those who fail to seek His word or to follow it. He simply withdraws His word and lets us go our own way. He allows us do our own thing. That, my friends, is a severe judgment. It brings a great deal of hardship because we cannot live abundant lives without hearing from God. The prophetic gift With that background, let's look now at prophecy in in the church. On the video screens, I've listed some characteristics of this particular spiritual gift: Note that prophecy involves "speaking God's word or God's truth into a particular situation, need, or problem." Often, it is characterized by calling people to respond on the basis of their existing knowledge of God, as opposed to teaching them something new concerning God. In many cases, the focus of prophecy is repentance -- exhorting people to align their thinking and their actions with what God has already revealed in Scripture. Preaching is usually considered prophetic, and certainly it should have this quality of speaking God's truth into particular situations. But one of the difficulties the church has today is that preaching has been considered the only prophetic voice in the church. I don't think this is the correct biblical understanding of this gift. In the congregational setting, any Christian present might be given a word of prophecy meant for that particular group, time, and place. Most often, prophecy in corporate worship includes a Scripture passage or passages that are given particular application. Indeed, one way to recognize true prophecy is that it will be in line with Scripture. God will not contradict His written word. The New Testament gives us several other ways to recognize true prophecy -- and I've put them on the video screens. These are some of the ways to test or confirm prophecy. Many of these tests are found in 1 Corinthians 14: Now, having said all that, let me issue a warning: not all prophetic utterances are from God. This is why the Bible instructs us to test the prophets. Look with me at two Scripture passages in this regard. The first is 1 Corinthians 14:29, which is speaking specifically about the prophetic gift in corporate worship: Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. Also look at 1 John 4:1: Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. In a future sermon, I'll talk about the gift of the discerning of spirits, determining the origin of things, whether they be from God, the devil, or simply from human imagination. But for now the point I want to make is that God intends for us weigh prophecy carefully and to test it to see if it is really from Him. Characteristics of a prophet People who manifest the prophetic gift can sometimes seem a little gruff. You can see this in Old Testament prophets and my experience is that generally speaking, that same quality is true of New Testament prophets. I've listed six things on a video slide that will help us understand the tone and demeanor of prophets, so that we don't become offended by them: Let me take these in order: First, prophets are concerned about the social implications of God's word. In other words, they want to see Gods Word lived out. Spirituality to the prophet is the application of God's truth to everyday life. Second, the prophet's primary objective is repentance. They confront people with God's Word and call them to account. John the Baptist is a classic example, and you can read about him in Luke 3:7-14. Third, prophets can seem dogmatic, stern, and intolerant -- and, frankly, it's because they often are! Fourth, prophets are not particularly given to teaching but rather to calling people to live out what they already know of God's truth. Unlike teachers, they're not line-upon-line-precept-upon-precept-type people. Fifth, prophets are often bold to the point of hindering intimate relationships. They can be so blunt and forthright that they can offend people. And lastly, prophets often strive for immediate results and aren't willing for people to be in process. This is why prophets usually don't make good counselors. Their answer to sin is "quit doing it." Their answer to life's hurts is "get over it and move on." Don't get me wrong. We need prophets. Sometimes, tough things need to be said. Just understand that someone who has the gift of prophecy isn't trying to hurt your feelings or be insensitive. It's just these folks, and I am one of them, tend to have such a "black-and-white" view of things that they can seem harsh at times. Hearing from God Now, I hope that as a church, we really do desire to hear from God. But if we're going to hear from God we need to do some adjusting. Here are four ways we need to adjust -- there may be more than four, but these are the ones I believe we need to start with: First, we must begin taking spiritual gifts -- specifically prophecy -- very seriously. We're not playing church parlor games in corporate worship. Having an "exciting service" is not we desire to see the prophetic gift at work among us. Rather, it is because we desperately need to hear from God. Next, you and I must be willing to be used of God to speak a prophetic word. If we feel God's Spirit moving us, we must be willing to speak up. I know it can be a frightening thing to stand up in front of folks and say, "I believe God has told me this" -- but we must be willing to do so. We also need to take the word just as it comes. Don't add anything to it or take anything from it. We should not try to make it say what we want it to say. And finally, we need to pay close attention to what God says. We need to ponder it, mull it over, pray about it. And if that word requires anything of us, we must do it. Friends, I don't know about you but I'm weary of us taking two steps forward and one-and-half backward in the life and ministry of our church. It's progress, but it's slow progress! I'm tired of spinning my wheels, running rabbit trails, or whatever term you want to apply to what we've been doing the last few years. I want to get on with it. I want to know and do the will of God for Gateway Church. We need to hear from God. We need the biblical gift of prophecy active among us. An audio tape of this sermon is available free of charge (U.S. requests only). Request a tape by calling or writing the Gateway Church office. Please specify tape number 020616a: Spiritual Gifts in Corporate Worship, part 3. © 2002 Gerald R. Varnado To the Gateway Church home page How to contact us