An Acts 2 Church - Prophetic

An Acts 2 Church - Prophetic According to God's word, in these last days, all of God's people are to prophesy! Listen to Joel as quoted by Peter in Acts 2:17-18: "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." The church is to be a prophetic body. But what does this mean? Just what is prophecy? How should prophecy be manifest in the church? Let us begin with the nature of prophecy. What is prophecy? The source of genuine prophecy is always the Holy Spirit. To prophesy is simply to speak a word or message from God by the Holy Spirit. Like all spiritual gifts, prophecy is incarnational. That means that it is partly of the Holy Spirit and partly human, of us. Thus, prophecy always needs to be tested because our part is fallible. Yet we must not allow fear of failure to silence us. One way to avoid such fear is to simply say what you believe God wants you to say without claiming it to be prophecy. You should not say "thus says the Lord" unless God tells you to say it. Say what you believe you should say and let others decide if it is prophetic. Look at an example of prophecy in Acts 2. In verse 4, all of them spoke in languages they did not know "as the Spirit enabled". Luke uses a rare Greek verb for inspired speech. He uses that verb again to introduce Peter's sermon in verse 14. Peter's message was inspired speech, a prophecy. As you read his words, you will see that he spoke with confidence. However, he never says "thus says the Lord" nor does he put words in God's mouth by speaking as God in first person except when quoting Scripture. He does quote and rely on Scripture as his authority, and he exalts Jesus as Christ and Lord. The impact of this sermon convicting the listeners and resulting in 3000 conversions demonstrates it was a prophetic message. The first Scripture Peter quotes says that all people who become servants of God will prophesy. Potentially, every Christian can speak for God. Back in Numbers 11:29, Moses expressed the desire that "all the LORD's people were prophets." Joel then promised that the day would come that this would be true. On Pentecost, Peter says that that time has arrived. So, Paul can say in 1 Corinthians 14:31, "you can all prophesy in turn." If you are a believer in Jesus, you can be filled with the Spirit, and you can and should then prophesy. According to Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:3, prophecy to the church has a three-fold purpose. First, it is to strengthen or edify the church. Prophecy builds up the whole body, not primarily the speaker. The goal of one who prophesies should be to strengthen the church. Sometimes the church needs correction or even rebuke, but this should not dominate prophecy. The second purpose is encouragement or exhortation. While this may include serious elements, exhortation is positive motivation to move forward in serving God. Finally, prophecy is to comfort and give consolation to God's people. Let me mention a couple of less common purposes of prophecy in the church. There are a few examples in Acts of prophets foretelling future events. This was to prepare the church to assist others in a famine, to confirm the calling of Paul and Barnabas so the church could send them forth in confidence, and to prepare the church to face Paul's imprisonment. All of these were given for the benefit of the church, usually by gifted prophets. Prophetic messages are usually for the whole body but can be addressed to individuals. This may be the case with prophecies to Timothy mentioned in 1 Timothy 1:18 and 4:14. Personal prophecies have often been abused to seek to control others or to give faulty guidance. God does give messages to individuals, but any directive prophecy must be carefully tested before being followed as a word from God. Peter's prophetic sermon on Pentecost demonstrates that prophecy can be addressed to unbelievers. Peter was presenting the gospel to the lost. The Holy Spirit used it to cut the listeners to the heart. The result of this prophecy was 3000 conversions to faith in Christ. Such use of the prophetic gift is not limited to preaching. One on one witnessing can also be prophetic. The church is to be God's voice to the world. Jesus says in Matthew 5:13-14: "You are the salt of the earth. ... You are the light of the world." We are salt. We are to act and speak to preserve society from decay. We are light. We are to show God's way to the lost. We need to be God's prophetic voice: calling sinners to repentance, pointing people to life in Christ, giving hope to the lost and dying, and bringing freedom in Christ to the captives of sin. The church needs to hear from God. It needs members willing to speak prophetically. The world needs to hear from God. It needs bold Christian to proclaim the gospel prophetically. Let us all be filled with the Holy Spirit and then prophesy. Let us all be willing and available to speak for God by His Spirit anywhere and at any time.