Matthew-096

 

Today, we back track a little to look into the Lord Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 23:34. In verses 34-36, the Lord Jesus is condemn­ing with extreme severity the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Nowhere in his teaching do we have so severe, so uncompromising a denunciation of hypocrisy and the people who live under it.

 We will focus our attention on the Lord Jesus’ words in verse 34,

 

Lord Jesus will send prophets, wise men and scribes to preach God’s Word

I would like you to notice particularly three categories of people that the Lord Jesus says, he will send in these last days – prophets, wise men and scribes. Today, our whole concentration will be on prophets, who are New Testament prophets. The Lord Jesus said, “I send,” a present continuous tense, “I am sending to you,” or “I will continue to send to you prophets, wise men and scribes. They will come in a continual stream to preach God’s Word to you, to rebuke you at every turn for your hypocrisy just as I am doing now, to challenge you with the message of repentance.”

First, notice the three offices or functions: prophets and wise men and scribes. We thought that prophets, wise men and scribes don’t exist in the New Testament anymore. They belong to the Old Testament age. To our surprise, Jesus the Christ says, “No, I will be sending prophets, wise men and scribes to you.”

The Bible in Hebrew is called Tanakh. The Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh (the Old Testament) is made up of three parts: Torah, Nevi’im, and Ketuvim. So the Hebrew word for Bible, Tanakh is simply a shortened form (the first letters) of these three words.

What do Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim mean? Torah means the Law, Nevi’im means the Prophets, and Ketuvim means the Writings. (Kata literally means to write.) The Law is the first five books of Moses. The Prophets are from Isaiah to Malachi, the great and the minor prophets. They are called “great” and “minor” not because some are more important, but simply because the “great” prophets are the ones who have written the long prophetic books, and the “minor” prophets are so called because their books are very short. Some are only one or two chapters. The Writings are the historical books plus the poetical books, that is, the books of Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon.

 

Why does Jesus place prophets first?

The first surprising thing about the three offices in Matthew 23:34 is that they are not limited only to the Old Testament, but the Lord Jesus also transfers them into the New Testament. The second surprising thing is that Jesus has reversed the order. Notice, Torah, the Law comes first in the Jewish thinking. It is the Law, the Prophets and the Writings. The Lord Jesus reverses the order and puts prophets first when he says, “I will send to you prophets,” then he puts “wise men” second. The Writings are called the Books of Wisdom (the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes were called the Wisdom Writing). Third comes the “scribes,” hence the Law, the Torah. I have expounded on the scribes in detail when we studied Matthew 13:52, so I will not spend much more time talking about them. You see clearly the Lord Jesus has inverted the order and placed prophets first as of the primary importance. Why does he put the prophets first? Why has he reversed the order? It is very important for us to grasp these things.

Today, I would like to deal with some vitally important points, which if we implement, will change the whole face of the church. I don’t mean to make this an overstatement. It’s in no way an exaggeration that if we implement the Lord Jesus’ teaching, we will utterly revolutionize the very structure of the church. Indeed, we aim to revolutionize the church from what it is today back to what the Lord Jesus meant it to be.

In Jeremiah 18:18, we see again the three parts, “the law”, “the wise” and “the prophets”, so the three parts are not at all something that the Lord Jesus has made up.

Here we read about the plot to kill Jeremiah. They tried to kill Jeremiah, that great prophet of God many times. No category of people in Israel faced greater opposition than the prophets. The law was unopposed; the wisdom writings were unopposed; but the prophets met with the fiercest resistance.

Notice, they think that they are defending the law by going against the prophets. They are saying, “Let’s not listen to Jeremiah. He’s a crank, a nutcase, and we have no use for the likes of Jeremiah. No, the prophets are on our side.” If you read the Old Testament, you will see that the majority of the prophets sided against the great prophets. Jeremiah was constantly in contention with the multitude of prophets. He was one against the crowd of prophets. You only need read particularly Jeremiah chapter 28, and you will see the great struggle between the true and the false prophets. The true prophets were always in the minority, outnumbered by one against all virtually. That was the kind of statistics against them.

I would like you to see the 3-fold division in this verse, as in the Jewish mind. “The law” associated with “the priest”, “counsel” asso­ciated with “the wise”, and “the word” associated with “the prophet.” It is very interesting that the three parts here are exactly the reverse order from the Lord Jesus’ teaching. The Lord Jesus has put the prophet first and the law last. Here the prophet is placed last and the law first.

Notice also, the law is associated with the priests. Counsel is associated with the rulers or elders of the people, with kings. It is interesting that the books of wisdom are generally written by the kings. Psalms is by David, Proverbs said to be by David or Solomon, and Ecclesiastes by Solomon. The kings are concerned with wisdom because without wisdom the kings cannot reign. And you will remember that when Solomon ascended his throne, the first thing he asked for above all else was for wisdom. He got the wisdom but the problem was he did not live by it.

We find that the Lord Jesus is saying, “I will send you prophets, wise men (this must refer to the elders or the leaders of the churches because wisdom is most essential for leadership in the churches, and law (which has to do with the priesthood as associated in the Old Testament.)”

As we know from the New Testament, we are a nation of priests. Every Christian has been ordained to the priesthood of the living God, not only pastors and priests. Priests and pastors are not to be a special class of people going around in black gowns and white collars because every Christian is a priest. This was one of the cardinal doctrines for which the Reformation fought to bring back into the church the Biblical teaching that every Christian is a priest of God. We do not need someone to mediate between God and us because we all have access to God.

We can also see these three parts in Ezekiel 7:26.

Here you see the counsel (wisdom) is again associated with the elders who were the leaders of the people. Ezekiel is saying that the people are seeking a vision, but the prophet has difficulty getting a vision; the priest does not know the law anymore; and the elders have no wisdom, no counsel. So again, we find this 3-fold division.

By way of introduction, I would like you to understand that the Lord Jesus is saying in Matthew 23:34 that in the church, there will be prophets; there will be leaders, spiritual men of God equipped with spiritual wisdom from above, which is very distinct from human wisdom; and there will be the new law of God taught and kept by the entire priesthood of God’s people. Let us talk about the prophets now.

 

Who and where are the prophets in the church? Why are they so important?

Where are the prophets today? Why does the Lord Jesus say, “I will be sending you prophets,” and we cannot find prophets? Maybe we manage to find some elders. Maybe we manage to find even some Christians who behave like priests, and these are hard to come by. But do you see any prophets around? Can you name me a prophet in this generation? In the previous generation? The one before that? Or even further back? Who and where are the prophets of God? How desperately we need to consider! The prophets above all are the ones the Lord Jesus will send, and where are the prophets? Who is he going to send to the people of Israel? Who is he going to send to the world?

In Numbers 11:25-28, the people came to Moses and said to him, “These 70 elders who have been appointed have dared to prophesy and taken the mantle of prophecy upon themselves so that you, Moses, are not the only prophet in Israel anymore.” They thought that the office of the prophet of God should have been reserved only for that great servant of God, Moses. They are worried that these elders are speaking in prophecy, because it seemed to devalue the status of Moses. In Numbers 11:29, we have this wonderful answer from Moses: “Would that all Yahweh’s people were prophets.” There you see the thinking of a great servant of God. Not only is he not jealous that other people are prophesying, he also desired that every one of God’s people would prophesy, that they would all be pro­phets, that God’s people would be a whole community of prophets.

When I look into the New Testament, I see the same vision in the New Testament. I see it in fact stated in so many words. In 1 Corinthians 14:1, Paul exhorts the Corinthians that every one of them seek the gift of prophesy. “May every one of you seek the gift of prophecy and become prophets.” Then he repeats this in verse 39 of the same chapter saying, “Earnestly desire the gift of prophecy.” The gift of prophecy is not for you to take it or leave it, rather, Paul says to pursue it with all earnestness.

 

With spiritual decline, prophecy disappears

Why has prophecy disappeared from the church? That is a very interesting question. What happened to prophecy? Let me ask you this question: What would we have in this Bible today, if it were not all full of prophets? The first one to be called a prophet was Abraham (Gen. 20:7). From Abraham in Genesis to Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, we have a continuing stream of prophets. And in every generation, the Bible testifies that God has his servants, the prophets to speak to every generation. But where are the prophets today? Has the voice of God become silent? Doesn’t he speak anymore to us through his servants that we must listen to people without vision, to people totally conformed to the thinking of this world? What has happened to the prophets in this generation? I want you to answer me. Where are the prophets?

Yes, we had prophets in the 1^st Century, the New Testament prophets. But since the 2^nd Century, they have become an extinct race. They have been wiped out from the church. What has become of them? The only prophets left by the 2^nd Century were heretical prophets. True prophets were no more to be found. What happened to the prophets of God? Where have they gone to? And yet the apostle Paul saw this gift of prophecy as so important that he instructed every single Christian in Corinth to seek prophecy because he shared the same vision with Moses: “Would that all God’s people were prophets” (Num. 11:29).

I share that vision that all God’s people would be prophets, that every one of you be prophets, speaking forth the Word of God in this generation. I will make no secret that the reason we are having training programs -- lay trainings and more full-time trainings is simply systematically moving towards this goal that all God’s people will be prophets. You cannot be a prophet without some training. How can you just stand up and talk? Indeed, it is a gift from the Spirit, but there are steps and procedures. That is why Paul had to instruct the Corinthians how to gain the gift of prophecy: “I will show you a better way,” he said, and he begins to instruct them on the nature of love as the most essential step, as we shall come to see in a moment.

When you look at the spiritual history of God’s people in the Bible, you will notice that prophecy always declines with the decline of the spiritual life of God’s people. After Malachi, there were no more prophets for 400 years. You read that in the book of the Maccabees. Prophecy had ceased in Israel. There were no more prophets for 400 years. They could not find a prophet anywhere. Darkness had come upon the people of God. God’s voice was not heard anymore through the prophets in Israel. With spiritual decline, there immediately sets in the disappearance of the prophets.

However, with spiritual revival, the prophets come again. It is remarkable that with the coming of the Lord Jesus, there was suddenly a great burst of prophetic activity as you can see in the New Testament. Suddenly, a group of prophets appeared, like Zechariah, a priest before the Lord Jesus’ birth; after the Lord Jesus’ birth, Anna and Simeon began to prophesy in the temple, and then John the Baptist. Of course, the Lord Jesus himself is called a prophet in the New Testament. In fact, he claimed the title for himself. When they persecuted him, he said, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and among his own people” (cf. Mt. 13:57; Lk. 4:24). It is always his own people who don’t want to listen to him.

So notice this important principle, that where spiritual decline sets in, prophecy disappears. By this mark, we would say immediately that by the 2^nd Century of the history of the church, spiritual decline came into the Christian church like a cloud, and prophecy became extinct.

 

The history of the church

What happened in the history of the church? By the 2^nd Century, who were the leaders of the churches? They were the scholars. The scholars came in, took over the church and pushed the prophets out, and prophecy disappeared. This is very dangerous. By the 2^nd Century, it became a tradition that all the leaders of the churches were scholars—Origen, Clement of Alexandria and the list goes on and on—who were trained in the Greek way of thinking, in Greek philosophy, as scholarship during that era meant specifically Greek philosophy. The church leaders were basically philosopher theolo­gians. They came in and dominated the life of the church, set up their own kind of schools. The school of Clement in Alexandria was most influential in the churches for a long time.

Gradually, the scholars took over. You only need to read the history of the church to see what happened. They began to conform the gospel to Greek ways of thinking as early as Justin Martyr in the 1^st Century. Justin Martyr was a Greek philosopher. This did not mean that their hearts were unfaithful to God. Don’t get me wrong. They did love God. It was this kind of people who were put on a pedestal by the church. Justin Martyr, as his name indicates, was a martyr. He died in his defense of the gospel. The problem was he took the first step in interpreting the gospel in terms of Greek philosophy.

Soon, what do we see generation after generation, right on to the 2^nd Century? The scholars became the leaders of the churches. They dominated the church with their Greek thinking and their Greek philosophy. They took the gospel and interpreted it in Greek lan­guage to the Greek people. There is no doubt that they performed a service, but what happened was the world came in. The categories of worldly thinking began to dominate the church.

By the time you get to the Middle Ages, there was nothing very Christian left about the church. Just look at the conduct and behavior of what is now called the Middle Ages. There again, the scholars dominated everything. Who were those dominating the scene right up to the time of the Reformation? Erasmus, a Greek scholar. Luther, a Greek scholar and so it goes on. They were all trained in Greek philosophy, and dominated by this type of thinking. Now this does not mean that they intentionally deviated from the Word of God. Not at all! There is no judgment brought against them. It was the church who put them on the pedestal. It was the church who wanted this kind of people to run the church for them.

We are doing the same thing today. I get a lot of Christian magazines of all sorts. In every issue, you have advertisements for pastors, ministers. There is a shortage of pastors, of ministers everywhere. What do they require? The pastor must have this or that degree. We want scholars, or at least, some sort of scholar. Having a degree doesn’t really make you a scholar, but at least, they think you will be some sort of intellectual. They want intellectuals to be pastors! They don’t ask the question: Is this man godly or not? That is not part of the requirement. No recommendations are required from men of God to make sure that this pastor is a man of God. All they want to see is your degree and from which college you graduated. If the college is good, and your degree is all right, you will get the job. What are we doing? We don’t want prophets. We want academics in the churches, that is, if the church can afford it. There are some churches which are too small to afford a pastor with a degree because they have to pay him a salary that is too high. There are also churches which say no degree is required, and that is usually a church that cannot afford to pay for a pastor with a degree. Therefore they have to settle for someone with no degree.

There is no big church in Canada that I know of that will not look at your degree unless it is exceptionally spiritual. I would like to know where that church is so that I may have fellowship with them. If you don’t put your degree on the table, there is no pastorate for you. Put the degree down first, and we will start talking about your salary as the next step.

Then the pastor will say, “In view of my degree, your pay is too low. Raise the pay and I may consider pastoring your church.” And if you sit in this kind of a meeting, you really forgot if it’s a church or business meeting you are in, because the bargaining begins. The church will say, “We will offer you $2,000.” And the pastor candidate will say, “That’s too little. With my degree, I ask for $2,500.” And the church will say, “Make it $2,300 then.” And so the bargaining goes on and they finally settle for $2,350. Only then do they start talking about matters concerning the church. This is Christianity today! Why? Because we want seminary graduates for pastors. If we want this kind of person, degrees have to be paid according to a certain scale, and the more degrees, the higher the pay scale. Your honorary doctorate might be worth a few dollars more. The bargaining goes on in this way.

No wonder we have a church in which the voice of God cannot be heard. Am I speaking truthfully or not? Go out there and ask the churches, “What were your requirements for your pastor?” Ask them and see whether or not I speak the truth. I am concerned not to ridicule the churches. It grieves me too much to do this. We must come back to the Biblical patterns if we are to survive in this day.

 

Prophecy builds up the church

In 1 Corinthians 14:1, the apostle Paul says,

By all means get all the gifts, but he said never mind the other ones, the most important thing is that you may all be prophets. Why is prophecy so important? Why does the apostle Paul want everyone in the church to prophesy? He explains very clearly why he put such value on prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14:3-4. There he is contrasting prophecy with the people who speak in tongues:

Paul says, “I want you all to prophesy because only through prophecy will you be able to build up the church.” But we haven’t had prophecy for nearly 2,000 years. How is the church supposed to be built up? Paul tells us that it is prophecy that builds up the church, yet we think today that it is the scholars that build up the church. Just look what they have built for us!

Paul tells us in verse 3 that prophecy builds up, encourages, consoles. It does three things. It is not only to say that prophecy builds up, but also that without prophecy, we have lost the chief means listed by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 23:34, of firstly, building up, secondly of encouraging (the word means exhort, console, instruct), and thirdly of comforting God’s people. Little wonder the scholar-pastors have a hard time to build up the church spiritually today. Without prophecy, the Christian church has spiritually declined into a dismal state.

It was the prophets in every generation, the mighty servants of God, Elijah and Elisha that pulled back Israel for a moment from the brink of utter destruction, until finally, the great prophets like Isaiah onto Malachi denounced Israel because they would not listen. We see that God spoke to Jeremiah saying, that his people would not listen to him (cf. Jer. 7:25-26, 17:23, 29:19, 35:14b-15, 44:4-5).

This being the case, I would also like you to note 1 Corinthians 14:6. Paul says,

What is revelation associated to? Prophecy and knowledge and revelation are closely connected.

In the previous chapter, 1 Corinthians 13:8, Paul says prophecy and knowledge are connected together:

Paul is saying, “If I come to you, how can I build you up, how can I give you something of spiritual value unless I bring a revelation or some spiritual knowledge? Where do these come from? How else but through prophecy? He specifically mentions prophecy, teaching.

Remember again, for 2,000 years, the church has been without prophecy, and look at the dismal history of the church as a conse­quence! Look what happened when we put the church into the hands of scholars! And today, the church is not only in the hands of scholars, but also of businessmen. Look at the Board of Directors of your average church and see! They are all businessmen, account­ants, managers, because today the church owns so much property that you cannot run the church without businessmen. So instead of prophets, we have scholars and businessmen running the churches. How can we carry on in this fashion? And yet, not only is the church blind to this reality that there have been no more prophets in the church since the 2^nd Century, but it even justifies the lack of prophets!

 

Objections to: “We don’t need prophets anymore.”

1. Wrong exegesis of 1 Cor. 13:8-10

I was reading an article in a Westminster Theological Seminary’s Journal. Notice carefully, Westminster Theological Seminary is one of the leading North American seminaries. There was an article in its journal that tells us that there is no more prophecy because we don’t need it anymore. The scholars are doing us a great service! They have not only kicked out prophecy, they tell us, “You don’t need prophecy because thanks be to God, you’ve got the theologians from Westminster Theological Seminary and all these other seminaries. Who needs prophets? Prophets are a bunch of unbalanced fanatics, quacks and the like. You’ve got scholars, balanced gentlemen who speak in monotone voice with all their distinctive learning.” Never mind if you don’t know what they say because the less you can understand, the more you can admire their scholarship. They are so learned you don’t know what they are talking about!

But the distinctive feature of the prophet in the Old Testament was that they communicated. You could understand what they were say­ing. Perhaps you cannot understand, but the people who heard them understood very well what they were saying. That is why they persecuted them so severely. The ordinary man on the street understood what the prophet was talking about. They knew the circumstances.

When I first read Ezekiel, I didn’t know what Ezekiel was talking about. But when I read the historical background of Ezekiel, and when I read Ezekiel again, I could understand it perfectly. It was so easy to understand once I read the historical background of Ezekiel, and put myself into the historical circumstances of Ezekiel’s listeners. Ezekiel’s listeners understood perfectly what Ezekiel was saying. Don’t get the impression that the prophets spoke mumble-jumble like some scholars did. Not at all! The prophets were superb communicators, superb preachers who made sure that their hearers understood every word they said. That was the great significance of the prophets. They even used prophetic parables to make sure that the people understood and remembered perfectly what they said. They were the finest communicators, unlike our scholar-pastors today.

What was the Westminster Theological Seminary’s argument? I don’t single them out by name simply for this, but because all seminaries would virtually have endorsed what Westminster was saying. The argument is based exactly in our passage here in 1 Corinthians 13:8.

Prophecy has passed away because it says here they will pass away. This is what our scholars tell us, and who could agree with them more if only they did more loving!

And what is more, we don’t need prophecies because verses 9-10 say prophecy is imperfect:

Presumably, if you are a very ordinary person like me, you would understand that “when the perfect comes,” means that the perfect will come in the future. That is why Paul goes on to tell us in verse 12:

Paul says, on that Day when the perfect comes, we will see clearly, face to face. Also, he will know fully on that Day. But the scholars know better than Paul. They think the perfect has already come.

So you will say, “Pardon me, I think I have lost your connection here.”

 And they will say, “It’s because you’re not an intellectual like me. I will explain the situation to you. You see, the Bible is perfect.”

You will say, “Yes.”

They will say, “Therefore, the perfect has come because the Bible is complete. It is perfect. And when the Bible Canon was completed with the writing of Revelation, we don’t need prophecy anymore. The perfect has come, therefore the imperfect has passed away.”

You will say, “Oh! I’ve never had such perception! Pardon me for my stupidity! I never realized.” You cannot argue with such logic. You will go away with your tail between your legs, and wonder how you ever managed to be so stupid and didn’t have this marvelous insight of the scholars.

You will continue to ask, “What about the Old Testament? Is it perfect too?”

They will answer, “Oh yes, the Old Testament is also perfect.”

“Is it? In what sense do you mean perfect?”

“If you mean that the Old Testament is the inspired Word of God, of course, it is perfect.”

Again you will ask, “Was the Old Testament present when Paul was writing this?”

“Of course, it was.”

“Therefore the perfect was present when Paul was writing this. The Old Testament did not pass away. And strangest of all, it was the prophets who composed most of that which is perfect.”

Oh! I think of Paul saying in 1 Corinthians 3:19, “God catches the wise in their craftiness.” What is the context of this passage, I beg of you? We have scholars without exegetes today. Surely, anyone who knows the basics of exegesis knows that the “perfect” and the “imperfect” in the context of this passage refers to the future revelation when we shall see Christ Jesus as he is face to face, as Paul says.

Certainly, the scholars have not bothered with exegesis. They will think, “We don’t need this kind of exegesis because we have clever argumentations. With the completion of the New Testament Canon, we don’t need prophecy or tongues anymore.”

Let me ask you, do tongues still exist today? We have people in our church who have spoken in tongues. Were they day-dreaming? If so, then tongues have not passed away even today as any Pentecostal can testify to you. In saying this I am not saying that I agree with all Pentecostals. But the fact is that people still speak in tongues today. Tongues have not passed away.

Let me show you the foolishness of this argument that this so-called “scholar” has used in writing this article in the Westminster Journal. Look at 1 Corinthians 13:8 again. It says not only will prophecies and tongues pass away, but knowledge will also pass away. Is he trying to tell me that knowledge has also passed away? If so, why do we need the Bible? With the completion of the New Testament Canon, we could have thrown the Bible into the garbage bin as well because knowledge has also passed away.

You don’t have to be an expert in New Testament exegesis to see that when Paul speaks of “knowledge” here, he is talking about knowledge of God, or knowledge of Christ, spiritual knowledge (2 Cor. 2:14). We proclaim the knowledge of him. It’s true our know­ledge of Christ is imperfect, but it’s not less valid. Paul doesn’t mean to say because we see in part, it’s not worth seeing at all; because we see in a glass darkly, we don’t have to see at all. It’s still seeing even if it’s not as perfect as when we see him face to face. If knowledge has not passed away, then who claims that tongues has passed away? Who claims that prophecy has passed away? Where is the logic of these so-called “scholars”?

I am not through with them yet. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:6,

Knowledge is imparted now, it’s still imperfect, but it’s not thrown away because it is imperfect. Neither can it be said that because Paul writes the New Testament he can therefore dispense with know­ledge. This kind of reasoning is too absurd even to imagine! Having thrown out prophecy, we even justify our throwing it out.

Let me tell you another reason why prophecy was thrown out. In any average church today, if anyone starts prophesying, you are going to make the pastor very, very nervous because he is not like Moses. Moses would be very happy if everyone prophesies. But the average pastor will think, “Hey, wait a minute. I’m the only one speaking God’s Word here. What are you doing?” I have been in the adminis­tration of enough churches to know that if there were two or three prophets in any church, the pastor would really start sweating because his authority is going to be challenged. He wouldn’t mind if someone were expounding the Bible besides himself. But a prophet doesn’t only speak in terms of expounding the Bible, he speaks God’s Word to the actual situation in the church. He might even start telling the pastor, “This and that you are doing is not right,” because one of the prophetic functions is in fact to challenge where there is error.

When David the king sinned, it was the prophet Nathan who came to him, the king and said, “You are the sinner.” A prophet dares to challenge even the king! He challenges anyone. Therefore, you can see why a pastor will start getting nervous if he has two or three prophets in his church, who will challenge him when he says or does something wrong. The prophet will say, “Pastor, I’m sorry, you are sinning.” The pastor will think, “Wait a minute! I’m the guy who decides who sins in this place!”

If you don’t believe me, try it sometime. When you go forth from here, and you go to a church, and you start prophesying, see what the pastor will do to you. I guarantee you he will silence you before too long. That is the state of the church today. We live in the genera­tion that when scholars are the ones to speak, when everyone takes off the hat to the scholars. We are not in a generation of prophets. And if you start prophesying, he will say, “What are you doing?” He doesn’t even know what you are doing. You will say, “I’m prophesy­ing. I’m speaking the Word of God.” And he will say, “Shut up! I’m the guy who talks here. There’s no more prophecy today. Didn’t you read the article in the Westminster Theological Seminary Journal? If you’ve not read that, there are lots of similar articles saying the same thing.”

 

2. God has appointed prophets in the church

So I answer these scholars, firstly, “Your exegesis is wrong.” I would like to answer more. Secondly, are we to understand that the offices God appointed for the upbuilding of the church are also abolished? Let’s read 1 Corinthians 12:28,

When you look at this, which office still exists today? We have no more apostles or prophets. We might still have teachers, but the problem is this: If you consistently follow your logic, if you abolish the prophets, you should also abolish the teachers. We also don’t need workers of miracles, and not to say we have already abolished healers and helpers, and we have no time for the like of this kind of people, speakers in various tongues. Apostles don’t exist anymore because according to modern understanding, there are only the 12 apostles, and they have already died. Prophets also don’t exist anymore because we don’t need them. So out of this whole list, we are left only with teachers. But I would like to know why we should not also abolish the teachers if we abolish the other offices. Perhaps it’s because this will not stand in good stead with our scholar friends. By now you will begin to see why I am so concerned and so heated up physically as well as spiritually about this.

Let us read another passage, Ephesians 4:11-14.

Notice that again, like the passage in 1 Corinthians 12, we see that all these offices are gifts of God, as they are vital to the upbuilding of the church. Who are the apostles? Now you will recall why I have preached about apostles. The word “apostle” means sent forth, those who went forth to carry the Word of God elsewhere with God’s authority and power to be the church builders. These are the apos­tles in every generation. The First and the Second Training Teams are apostles of the New Testament Church. These are the people who bring churches into being.

Then Paul lists again the prophets. Are prophets only for the first 50 years of the church’s life, and we don’t need prophets anymore the next 2,000 years? That is what the scholars want us to believe, but not what the Bible tells us here. Each one of these offices is vital, because if we do away with prophets, we might as well throw out evangelists. We might as well throw out the pastors and teachers too. You cannot throw one out without throwing the others out. All these offices are vital to the upbuilding of the church until we attain to the fullness and the stature of Christ. No wonder we cannot attain the fullness and the stature of Christ because we don’t have these ministries today.

 

3. The Lord Jesus said, “I am continuously sending to you prophets”

When we return to the Lord Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 23:34, the third point is, I’d like you to notice again the tense. “I am continuous­ly sending to you first and foremost, the prophets, those who speak forth God’s Word; then the scribes who are experts in the law; and the wise men who are experts in practical, spiritual wisdom.” But first and foremost, the prophets, those who speak forth God’s Word.

 

4. Revelation 11:3-12 – two great prophets of God

The fourth point I want to mention is this: if these scholars are right that prophecy has finished with the completion of the New Testament Canon, maybe they have not read Revelation chapter 11, which is undeniably referring to the last days, the days when the Antichrist arrives, the beast appears on the scene. In Revelation 11:3-12 we read of the two great prophets of God, who challenge the authority of the beast, and who preach God’s Word in the last days. Aren’t these prophets? Revelation chapter 11 tells us that they are prophets. There again, the falsity of this exegesis is shown.

 

5. God’s Holy Spirit enables everyone to prophesy

Let me come to the fifth point. Most importantly, what was the characteristic mark of the New Testament that we read in the very opening chapters of Acts? In Acts 2:17-21, when the apostle Peter has to explain what happened when the Holy Spirit of God came down at Pentecost, he explained this incident in terms of Joel 2:28.

Dreams and visions in the Old Testament are always connected with prophecy. The prophets saw visions and dreamed dreams. And now the Spirit would be poured out on all flesh. “All flesh” simply means everyone. So your sons and your daughters, men and women, everyone will prophesy. That was the point of the New Testament. What was the coming of the Holy Spirit for? Peter tells us in Acts 2:17, it is the fulfillment of Joel chapter 2. The Spirit is poured out on everyone, not only the apostles who were speaking in tongues and prophesying at the time. Everyone in the New Testament age are to be prophets, fulfilling Moses’ desire and dream, fulfilling Paul’s desire and dream. That is why Paul says to them, “Pursue the gift of prophecy because the Spirit has now been poured out on all flesh. You can all prophesy.” In fact, in his detailed instructions in 1 Corinthians 14:29-32, he tells them that they may all prophesy one by one. Give everyone in the church a chance to prophesy because you are all prophets if you would only seek the gift of prophecy. Can you catch the vision of a church in which everyone is a prophet or prophetess?

What is the value of this? What is the value of this? Today, the up­building of the church is dependent usually on one person namely, the pastor. He is supposed to have the whole responsibility of building up the church. If he cannot manage this, he might get what is called a “Christian education director.” Notice the word “education.” We are back to education again. Everything is educa­tion. We have thrown away the apostles and prophets and now we have Christian education directors. We have done a wonderful job on God’s church, haven’t we? What is the reason that Paul wants all of them to prophesy? As you read on you will see. He wants a ministry in which everyone participates in building up each other. You don’t depend on me to build you up because if you have the gift of prophecy, which I earnestly desire that you have, you will be able to build each other up. How much faster we can build up the church of God when everyone is active, and not just passively sitting there to be fed? This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:23. He says, “Let two or three speak and let the other people listen to and evaluate what these two or three prophets are saying.” Use discernment, insight, just as you must do with what I am saying. You must ask yourself, ‘Is what he is saying Scriptural?’ Or is he just going around bashing the church again?

Some people think I have nothing to do. I have a hobby called “Church bashing.” My intense and burning desire is to rebuild the church of God until it is what the Lord Jesus died to make it. After his crucifixion and resurrection, God poured out his Spirit so that all his sons and his daughters might prophesy. That is what I aim to accomplish, scholars or no scholars. Let the church say what it may. I will aim to build that church until my last breath. If I were not aiming to fulfill God’s Word, I will not be in this ministry. I will find myself some other job. So long as God has given me this task, so help me God, I will see to it that it is done, until every one of his people, every one of you become his prophets, and speak his Word with power and authority in this age. I don’t want to have a spiritual kindergarten in which I am going to nurse spiritual babies for the rest of my life. Forever, I have to stick a bottle in this mouth and a bottle in that mouth when this or that one starts yelling. Then I have to change the nappies whenever they commit sin and do some mess; I have to clean them up. I am running a spiritual nursery school! No indeed! This will be a school of prophets as in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the prophets had schools.

 

Prophets trained disciples

Since we have seen the importance of prophets, how do we have prophets? I just hinted that prophets need training too. In the Old Testament, there were schools of prophets. We read of one of these in 1 Samuel 19:20. It was one school that was headed by the great prophet Samuel, that great man of God, one of the earliest prophets of Israel. It says that he headed a whole school of prophets. No wonder they sought to learn from this mighty man of God, how to be a prophet of Yahweh.

In 2 Kings 6:1, we see that Elisha is in charge of another school of prophets at a somewhat later date. There the prophets were trained under this mighty man of God, Elisha, who himself was trained with others under Elijah, another mighty man of God. One of the impor­tant reasons for prophecy is that it is itself designed in the form of discipleship. In the Old Testament, the only place you can see disci­pleship is always in the schools of the prophets. The prophets had disciples. The Lord Jesus deliberately modeled the New Testament pattern on the patterns of the prophets, and that is why there are disciples. The Lord Jesus trained up those who in their turn were to become the mouthpieces of God.

 

The marks of a prophet

Let me deal with a number of points concerning the marks of a prophet, and I would like you all to listen and judge whether I am saying the Word of God. For whether I stand or fall, I wish to be judged on one point alone, whether I am a true prophet of God or not. If not, your responsibility is not to listen to a word I say, for I am a false prophet. Whether in my life and in my words I bear the mark of a prophet or not, is to me the most vital thing. And whether you in time will bear the marks of a prophet or not, is for me the most vital thing. For if you don’t, I have failed in my ministry. I would have done better in some other job. I have wasted my time. Or as Paul said, “I have labored in vain” when he was concerned about the Galatians.

 

1. A prophet is filled with the Spirit of God

The first mark of a prophet above all things is that he is filled with the Spirit. The Spirit of God clothes him with power from on high. The Lord Jesus wanted all his apostles to be clothed with power from on high. You see that in the Lord Jesus’ own teaching to his disciples, he was training them as prophets because to be imbued, to be clothed with the Spirit and with power from on high was the first mark of the prophet. We see that in 1Samuel 10:6 or 2 Samuel 23:2. When you are filled with the Spirit, when you are clothed with power from on high, you are no longer the person who is talking. It is God speaking through you. In becoming servants of God, you must learn to no longer speak your own opinions which count for nothing, and you speak God’s Word. Isn’t that what every Christian should learn to do? In so doing, you are learning to be a prophet.

The prophet speaks God’s Word, not his own ideas. He may have his own ideas but he puts that aside so that he may speak God’s Word. Remarkably in Matthew 10:19-20, the Lord Jesus said to his disci­ples that this is exactly what would happen. He told them that when they stand before governors and kings to be judged,

That was exactly the mark of the prophet. All his disciples would be prophets. When you are questioned at trial, stand there and don’t worry what you will say. Open your heart to God, commune with him and he will speak through you.

 

2. He proclaims the good news of God to the poor

The second mark of a prophet is what does he say? He proclaims the good news of God (Isa. 61:1)

But who does he proclaim it to? He proclaims it to the poor and the needy. Oh, would to God that the church would return to a respect for the poor and the needy. Love the poor. Love the needy. Despise the rich. God’s Word said it. Address the rich with firmness; speak to the poor with kindness.

Today, the church wants to speak to the rich! They want to glory in the rich. Look at the elder of the church. He is the managing director of this and that company. And another elder of the church is profes­sor this and that. We honor all the great men of the world. Where are the poor? The prophet of God proclaims God’s Word, good news to the poor. The Lord Jesus quoted these very words in Luke 4:18 when he began his own ministry. Do you love the poor? Do you love the despised? Do you love the humble? Then you have the marks of a prophet. The prophet had no patience for the rich and the mighty. He loved the poor.

The Lord Jesus always loved the weak, the nobodies. When Herod the King wanted to talk to him, he would not dignify Herod with one word. Herod could not get one word out of him. He did not answer his questions. But there was one poor woman by the well of Samaria, a non-entity of this world, a sinner, and the Lord Jesus sat down by the well and talked to her. We don’t know for how long, maybe one hour or two. He just talked with this nobody. He loved the nobodies, the poor, the despised. That is the mark of a prophet. But those people who consort with the great, who love to be in the company of the rich, are not prophets. Turn your backs upon them. I don’t mean to say that we should not talk to these people, but I have always made it a point that when I speak to a church of rich people, I am hard on them. So I have been greatly disliked in the churches. When I speak to the poor, I speak gently. My heart is with them. I also seek to imitate the Lord Jesus in these ways.

 

3. He condemns sin

The third mark of a prophet is he condemns sin. He does not compromise with sin. He will not tolerate sin. Read the prophets of the Old Testament. The prophets denounced sin. I denounce sin in the church. Then they say, “You are very judgmental.” Thanks be to God! I will not be muzzled. If there is sin in the church, if the church will not live according to the Word of God, so help me God, I will not cease to denounce it. And let any man try to sin in the church, he will not escape the words of rebuke. That is the mark of a prophet. You see this happening again and again in the Old Testament.

Let us read Micah 3:8 lest you think that I am inventing all this. I want you to be sure to understand that I speak the Word of God.

Prophet Micah says, “The reason why I am filled with the Spirit of God, filled with justice and power, is to declare to the people of God their sins.” The prophets refused to be silenced.

Do you remember when Amaziah tried to silence the prophet Amos, “Be quiet about the sins of Israel. You must not speak against Israel. You must not speak against God’s people”? Amos said, “Not only will I speak against God’s people, I will tell you that God’s people, includ­ing you, will be utterly destroyed!” That was the response he got from Amos. Read it carefully in Amos 7:12-17.

Then they will quote to you, “But the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 7:1, you must not judge.” We don’t judge. Remember that the prophet does not speak his own opinions. He speaks God’s Word. I don’t judge any man. I have no right to judge any man. The Lord Jesus is saying, “You must not judge personally. No servant of God makes a personal judgment. But when there is a violation of His Word, that is not a question of personal judgment. There we cannot be silent. Let no man misquote Matthew 7:1 to you. This has nothing to do with personal judgment. When these great prophets denounced the sins of Israel, and also individuals within Israel, they often mentioned individuals by name and condemned them by name, but it was not because they had a personal animosity against them. They had no hard feeling against these people themselves. They were not passing personal judgements. They were speaking God’s Word when God’s Word was violated.

If you are not satisfied with Micah 3:8, let us read Isaiah 58:1. The great prophet Isaiah says exactly the same thing. This is the ministry of a prophet:

That is the prophetic task, to denounce sin wherever it is seen as loudly as a trumpet! Notice also the words “spare not,” that is, don’t tone it down. If you see sin in my life, kindly denounce it to me because never would you do me a greater favor. I would be grateful to you. If you see pride in me, come to me and say, “I see pride in you and I don’t like what I see.” I will thank you from the depth of my heart if I love righteousness, if I love holiness. Denounce me for my sins, I beg of you that I may know my error and straighten out my path by the mercies of God. Never say, “Oh, I must not judge.” I beg of you to judge me. I beg of you to denounce my sins. Only so may I be preserved from falling into destruction in the grace of God.

 

4. He is holy

The next mark of a prophet is holiness. How can I denounce sin if I am unholy? Holiness is the central mark of the prophet. Get a concordance and look under “holy,” “righteous” and see it there. The prophets are forever speaking about justice, holiness and righteous­ness. All these things have to do with holiness and righteousness. That is why the apostle Peter speaks of God’s “holy prophets” in 2 Peter 3:2. A prophet is holy.

 

5. He has close communion with God

The next mark of the prophet is close communion with God. They were constantly called “men of God,” “servants of God” because of their close communion to God. Amos makes a remarkable statement in Amos 3:7-8.

Amos says that God does nothing without revealing his will to the prophets. That is the glory of it. When you walk close to God, you will know his will, so you will be able to instruct the people. That is why you are able build up the church. How can you build up the church when you don’t even know what is God’s will? How can you build up one another when you don’t know what is God’s will? A prophet has close communion with God. Prophecy in fact, is often spoken of as an answer to prayer. Now I would like to connect this point to the next one.

 

6. He loves God foremost, and his people

The prophets were holy but they were men of great love. If you have met a prophet of God, you would see his love. He loved God above all else. He loved God’s people. That is why he is condemning their sin because he doesn’t want them to perish. That is why a father chas­tens his child. Proverbs 13:24, 22:15, 23:13 say that if you spare the rod, you will destroy the child. You must not spare the rod. It hurts you to beat the child but if you don’t, that child will think, “Sinning is all right. I will carry on.”

Love is a characteristic mark of the prophet. Oh, how they wept over Israel. They condemned their sins because they loved them. And when Israel would not listen, they wept. Look how Jeremiah wept over Israel (cf. Lam. 3:48-49):

The whole book of Lamentations touches one’s heart. The prophet wept his eyes out because Israel would not listen.

We may not denounce sin because we dislike a person. No prophet of God may do this. He must speak God’s Word and he must speak it motivated by love. This is one of the most essential things for anyone to understand. That is why Paul says, “I will show you a better way” (1 Cor. 14:1). Unless you are consumed with love, why do you care whether or not you build up the other person? And if you don’t care about building him up, you don’t care about prophecy either because prophecy is for building other people up. There is no use for prophecy if you don’t love other people.

 

7. Keen perception concerning future events and God’s judgment

Prophets constantly prophesy about God’s judgments. They are concerned about whether people will fall into the judgment of God in future.

 

8. Prophecy of the Messiah

One of the characteristic marks of the prophets is that they prophesy about the Messiah. The Lord Jesus, the Savior whom Yahweh God sent to redeem the faithful remnant of his people, is the center of all prophecies. It says in Revelation 19:10b,

 

Conclusion

As we close, I remind you that we have been looking at one verse, Matthew 23:34 in which the Lord Jesus said,

We saw that the Lord Jesus was actually saying, “I will continue to send to you prophets, wise men and scribes. They will come in a continuous stream to preach God’s Word to you, to rebuke you at every turn for your hypocrisy just as I am doing now, to challenge you with the message of repentance.”

In the three categories, prophets, wise men, and scribes, the Lord Jesus has placed prophets first. The prophets above all, are the ones he will continue to send. But who are the prophets? I pray that you will talk to God as you meditate on the marks of a prophet. Do you aspire to become a prophet?