Despising prophetical utterances

In the letters to the churches in revelation 2 and 3 there were the “this is what you are doing good” and then “this is what I have against you.” Statements of the Lord.

Paul does the same thing in His letter to the Thessalonians. He first commends them on keeping the faith and then he has to exhort them on what they are doing wrong.

While the Church under pressure of growing persecution was holding the line there was spiritual problem. The problem of quenching the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

The Christian fights a two-front battle, He might hold his own when it comes to making overt decisions to stand firm all the while he might be losing the spiritual battle within his own soul

A believer you might be doing the right thing, but if one is doing that right thing absent from the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit he is outside of the will of God.

Opening Hymn

Prayer

The filling of the Holy Spirit is the third member of the God head’s active and unhindered ministry within the life of the believer.

It is not that the believer has the power to dictate over the Holy Spirit, but it is the carnal believer in Christ who Yields to the flesh as the governing agency over his own soul.

The believer is fulfilling the will of God worthily only when the believer is yielding to the spirit of God within him that whatever he does, is profitable for spiritual growth.

The sinful nature brings nothing that we can call a consecrated life. the Spirit of God brings everything. When the believer walks in the darkness (1 John 1:5) the believer is quenching 1 Thessalonians 5:19 and grieving the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 4:30.

The Greek for quenching is Present active imperative - [4931] σβέννυμι sbennymi 6× to extinguish, quench, like to extinguish a fire.

Μη [Mē] with the present imperative means to stop doing it or not to have the habit of doing it.

There are references to the holy spirit to fire.

Isaiah 4:4 (NASB95) — 4 When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning,

Matthew 3:11 (NASB95) — 11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Acts 2:3–4 (NASB95) — 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

The believer who is determined and sincere about living a life honorable to God must keep in check and carefully Judge one’s life by checking one’s own fruit.

Galatians 5:16–26 (NASB95) — 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Time to look in the mirror, folks. And that is the mirror of God’s word. Do you like what you see? More importantly is what you see acceptable to the Lord?

In contrast there is

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

“But I got some of these things going on. I ain’t all bad. Don’t I get credit for any of these?”

Sorry it is all or nothing.

The only option that the carnal believer has is to correctly Judge oneself

1 Corinthians 11:31 (NASB95) — 31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.

When we realize through the convicting ministry of God the Holy Spirit, our only recourse is to repent which is to change one’s thinking, turnaround from the carnal influence back to the spirit and second it is the confession of sins.

Psalm 32:5 (NASB95) — 5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.

Proverbs 28:13 (NASB95) — 13 He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.

1 John 1:9 (NASB95) — 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Now that we understand what the spirit is and what it is to quench the spirit lets see how it is that the Thessalonians are wrong in their relationship with the spirit

1 Thessalonians 5:19–22 (NASB95) — 19 Do not quench the Spirit; 20 do not despise prophetic utterances. 21 But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; 22 abstain from every form of evil.

First it is, “stop despising prophecy.”

88.195 ἐξουθενέω: to despise someone or something on the basis that it is worthless or of no value—‘to despise.’

Why and how could this otherwise motivated church despise that which is from God?

Paul gives us a hint when he says

This is the plural accusative ofπροφητεία [propheteia /prof·ay·ti·ah/] n [1]

Prophesies.

1 prophecy. 1a a discourse emanating from divine inspiration and declaring the purposes of God, whether by reproving and admonishing the wicked, or comforting the afflicted, or revealing things hidden; esp. by foretelling future events.[2]

The Bible connects Prophecies (or Prophetical utterances as described by the NSAB,) with the temporal gifts of the Holy Spirit.

IN our Study we have learned that a ministry of the Holy Spirit is the distribution of Spiritual gifts.

These gifts serve to edify the church Bodies. They were varying and distributed as was needed to support the body.

Romans 12:6–10 (NASB95) — 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; 7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; 8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. 9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;

The temporal gifts were just we what call them. Temporal. These gifts were

In Context we may be dealing with the temporal gift of Prophecy. Along with tongues and other miraculous gifts were temporary and were used to take up the slack until the New Testament cannon was compete.

1 Corinthians 13:8–11 (NASB95) — 8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

Prophesy along with tongues and healing and other miraculous gifts had its time but ceased by way of office of gifts with the advent of the completed word of God the mystery doctrine of the Church age. It is the word of the Lord that is sufficient for every good work.

Generally, the gift of Prophesy was to communicate special revelation to individuals and to the church through the individual. For

Guidance

Exhortation

Comfort

Edification (building up)

1 Corinthians 14:4–6 (NASB95) — 4 One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church. 5 Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying. 6 But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching?

Two ways that the church of Thessaloniki could have been extinguishing the power of the Holy Spirit.

1. Ignoring the prophecy

Not that they were actively ignoring God as in willful ignorance, but it may have been that they did not trust in the gift itself. In the Pagan community there were those who claimed to have the gift of prophecy as there are those who claim in our day to have the gift. The only thing different between our day and theirs is that there was the legitimate office of prophecy.

2. possibility is the misuse of spirit Gifts

False prophets declaring that which was not true and believing it.

If a people are deceived, are they still accountable?

Well let’s see open up to Matthew 7

Matthew 7:15–23 (NASB95) — 15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 “So then, you will know them by their fruits. 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

Often the reference to the fruit is how you can determine a Christian. The reference is how to determine the false teachers you can tell them by their fruit.

The fruit is those who are coming to Jesus

22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

While the false teachers are doubly accountable those who fell into deception also are held accountable.

And you might cry UNFAIR! But here is the principle

Before you can accept the lie, you must first reject the truth.

Rejecting of God’s truth is teaching revelation from God worthless. Devaluing it

We do so in a number of different ways.

1. Willful ignorance of God’s word.

a. Willful ignornance of God’s word is tanamount to the rejection of God’s word

2. Subtracting or adding to God’s word

a. Cursed is he who adds to takes away

Jesus said know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

A baby believer is vulnerable. Another reason for the assembly of believers and discipleship. The baby believer knows just enough to be saved.

James says that when you lack wisdom you are to ask for it. seeking asking and knocking. That is the pursuit of wisdom.

The more bible doctrine circulating within the heart of the believer the better able the believer discerns right from wrong.

While you might be calling God unfair or unjust because he holds you accountable for being deceived, maybe you should ask yourself what your sin is.

Could it be that you have treated God’s word worthless having ignored it

1 Thessiloni

1 Thessalonians 5:19 (NASB95) — 19 Do not quench the Spirit;

This is the present active imperative

68.52 σβέννυμιb: (a figurative extension of meaning of σβέννυμιa ‘to extinguish a fire,’ 14.70) to cause a fervent activity to cease—‘to stop, to quench.’ τὸ πνεῦμα μὴ σβέννυτε ‘do not stop the activity of the Spirit’ 1 Th 5:19. Though the particular activity of the Spirit is not overtly indicated in the context of 1 Th 5:19, the book as a whole contains sufficient reference to the activity of the Spirit so as to indicate what is involved.[3]

Attached to it is the negative which is

μήa:

it is stop quenching the Holy Spirit. Stop doing what you have been in the practice of doing. The quenching of the Holy Spirit is the suppressing the ministry of the Holy Spirit from doing what He was placed in our hearts to do. To guide, to comfort, to teach, to help, to live as light in the world of darkness.

The holy Spirit came as with fire. The paul is accusing the beleivers of extinguishing that fire.

This letter is to a church that is under pressure as perhaps all churches were at the point where the Church age had begun. Before we continue our whining about the treatment that the church of our day is experiencing, we must remember that the pressure that we as Church body might be feeling is yet nothing new. As we are experiencing the escalation of persecution, we must remember that the church was planted on enemy territory.

The Concern of the Church is not how to get out of suffering or how to live within the world with as little discomfort as possible, but it is How we should endure.

One of the stumbling blocks that the early church may have been suffering from as our church day suffers to go along to get along. To compremize with the world to show the world we can be like them.

Our connection with our Heavenly headquarters is the Holy Spirit that dwells the soul of the believer.

Stifling the holy Spirit begins with many with distraction. It is laying aside our spiritual priorities to coexist with the world. that is laying aside our bible study, our assembling with other believers, dismissing prayer because you just don’t have time and before long you have drifted off course and have become what Paul calls shipwrecked believers.

1 Timothy 1:18–19 (NASB95) — 18 This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, 19 keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.

Keeping a good conscience is keeping one’s situation awareness in knowing where He or she is at all times in relation to the relationship with the Lord through the connection of the Holy Spirit.

In sin we are suppressing that ministry and the longer one remains outside of the relationship with the Holy Spirit the one slips further away and will be harder to return and function and the scarier thing is that one may never get back to the place of the level of maturity which one has once enjoyed (Hebrews 6).

Paul warns the believers to stop suppressing the holy spirit. Repenting from doing so reestablishes the position in the spirit where the believer can once again advance forward in his spiritual life even through and especially through the darkness.

1 Thessalonians 5:20–22 (NASB95) — 20 do not despise prophetic utterances. 21 But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; 22 abstain from every form of evil.

And Paul goes on in his exhortation and correction

88.195 ἐξουθενέω: to despise someone or something on the basis that it is worthless or of no value—‘to despise.’ ὅτι εἰσὶν δίκαιοι καὶ ἐξουθενοῦντας τοὺς λοιπούς ‘and they were righteous and despised everyone else’ Lk 18:9; ὁ ἐσθίων τὸν μὴ ἐσθίοντα μὴ ἐξουθενείτω ‘the one who eats should not despise the one who does not eat’ Ro 14:3.[4]

Again it is stop doing what some of you are in the practice of doing. Paul addresses the whole for all have the potential to quench and to despise the things of God. that is to cast them aside as worthless. Don’t say o man that you would never do such a thing or think you are at some place in your spiritual life that you could not fall back.

And what is it that we are stop

33.460 προφητείαa, ας f: an utterance inspired by God—‘[5]

Stop casting aside the spiritual gift of Prophecy.

The Canon of Scripture was still in formation when the church was at its infant stage. There were certain gifts of tongues the interpretation of tongues and the gift of Prophecy and other gifts that were used to direct attention to the authority of God’s word through those who operated in the practice of these gifts.

During the time of Paul’s writing the gift or prophecy was still in operation as the spirit would reveal divine truths to certain members of the church.

1 Corinthians 14:1–3 (NASB95) — 1 Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 2 For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. 3 But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation.

Acts 13:1 (NASB95) — 1 Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

1 Corinthians 14:31 (NASB95) — 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn, and all may be exhorted;

Such gifts were ceased with the completion of the canon of scripture.

1 Corinthians 13:8–11 (NASB95) — 8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

The Church was in waiting for the competion of what we now call the new testament. The revelation of the Mystery doctrine of the church which applies to the royal family of God. there were two things that the believers were waiting for after Jesus ascended into Heaven.

1. The coming of the holy spirit when the spirit came upon the believer when the church age began

2. The completed canon of scripture the mystery doctrine of the church age which was in the works

One of the ministries of the Spirit was to nurture the young church in the distribution of spiritual gifts. There remains some spiritual gifts as we went over in a previous class, but there were those that once came the completed new testament they were done away with.

These miraculous gifts were in place to take up the slack for the completion of the canon of scripture, which is referred to as the completed or perfect

It is the word of God which is God’s councel and is sufficient for the edification of the heart of the believer.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NASB95) — 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

What was once was necessary and profitable to the church would serve as a distraction later on from the greater which is God’s word given to the believer the training in righteousness.

It is why the necessity of the destruction of the temple. It tore down the old which in its time had a purpose and was necessary but was connected with the old way of Judaism. It was done away with to make room for the new in the heart of the believer.

So it is now that we are not ourselves in the time in which we live capable of dispising the gift of prophecy for it was done away with never the less there is still application that is relevant to the church age believers of today.

We are no longer waiting for God to tell us what to do.

We have one the guidance of the spirit and number two the completed cannon of scripture.

One of the hosts on the way of the master seen on faith life Tv has a favorite saying that I believe holds true. You don’t need a voice when you have a verse.

The bible is a gift, we no longer have a prophecy but we have the mind of Christ in written form which is prophetical for reproof correction and the training in righteousness.

When the gift of prophesy was removed along with the gift of tongues it removed the option of clinging to the old and disregarding the more valuable divine resourse.

Where this applies today God is speaking now not through prophets or through dreams and visions by practice. But by the word of God under the filling ministry of God the Holy spirit.

And where we neglect God’s word we are essentially despising God’s prophetical word. That is God’s own communication to the believer living in the church age.

ἐξουθενέω: to despise someone or something on the basis that it is worthless or of no value—‘to despise

This is to cast aside something of value that one has deemed worthless.

I can’t think of a better example than that of Esau Jacobs brother who sold his birthright f

Many times our failure stems from our inability to stand still and wait upon the Lord.

We give up all too soon. We get mad at the bible. We say that doctrine does not work. Why is divorce so high in the Christian church? Before christiains gave up on each other they gave up on God’s word.

Pressure in time cause the beleiver to become weary in well doing. they stopped trusting in the promises of God to come through and they ran from what they considered was causing the pressure. They treated as worthless God’s council not through prophecy coming from another with the gift but the gift bestowed upon them which is the filling of the spirit and the councel of God’s word.

At this we must suspect that there is something going on in the background. That something may have a lot to do with False teachers and false prophets.

If Satan cannot get you with one hand, he will get you with the other, as Satan often does, he takes that which is from God and he causes the believer to misuse or misapply it.

We learn of this in His letter to Corinth, where there were the distribution of spirit gifts which rather than edifying the church it became a area of dispute here is Thessalonica it is the spiritual gift of Prophesy that may be the area of misapplication.

Simply put it is divine revelation or disclosure of what God wants to be known to those who wants to make known.

And while it was that prophecy and tongues were the means of communicating God’s word along with dreams and visions, we now have God’s word in written form.

Does it matter how God communicates to the believer? The hurdle that any believer has in the time in which we live is to come to know that God’s written word is God breathed and is profitable for reproof and training in righteousness that the man of God may be adequately equipped for every good work.

From the faithlife study bible

5:20 prophecies The Greek word used here, prophēteia, refers in this context to an utterance inspired by the Holy Spirit for the edification of the church community (1 Cor 14:4). Some believers at Thessalonica may have felt uncomfortable with the spiritual gift of prophecy because of their past experience with idolatry (1 Thess 1:9). Some religious cults—such as the cult of the Greek god Dionysus—practiced a form of pagan prophecy that involved ecstatic behavior.[6]

From Bible knowledge commentary

5:20. There may have been a tendency in the early church, and perhaps in the Thessalonian church in particular, to underrate the value of prophetic utterances. The gift of prophecy was the ability to receive and communicate direct revelations from God before the New Testament was completed (1 Cor. 13:8). Sometimes these revelations concerned future events (Acts 11:28), but often they dealt with the present (Acts 13:2). Perhaps people who had not received prophetic revelations were teaching their own views of such things as the Second Advent, with the result that prophetic revelations tended to be evaluated on superficial terms (e.g., the eloquence of the speaker) instead of on the basis of their intrinsic authority.[7]

Paul tells the church to stop treating a worthless prophecy

21 But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good;

What is Paul telling them to do here? To be discerning.

The church may have been suspicious of those who were speaking prophecies from God. It may have also been others who were for their own purposes and gain began to come up with their own verbal communication by way of false teaching that the church in every era had to be leery of.

So, two possibilities here

1. Doubting

2. Accepting that which is a lie coming from false teachers.

In both cases the ministry of God the Holy Spirit is quenched.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 (NASB95) — 21 But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good;

Wrong doctrine leads to wrong application

Failure to discern right doctrine from error leads to wrong application

Though in context today the gift of prophesy has ceased. where there are those such as Edgar Cassey who was a modern-day prophet it becomes a distraction from God’s word which we are to learn grow and live by.

How can we fail and do fail as a church today?

The believer first fails by the willful ignorance of God’s word. In this area we are despising the word of God the word of truth.

We have done so with entertainment. Looking for extra biblical means to edify the soul such as psychology or prosperity doctrines that which satisfies the itchy ears and gets people into the church.

We also despise Gods word when we receive and take as true that which is false.

Yes, the church can extinguish the ministry of God the Holy spirit through the rejection of His word in whatever form. But they can also suppress the ministry by accepting and believing false teachers.

It is apparent in this verse that there were those rejecting it or misusing it.

Romans 12:6–10 (NASB95) — 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; 7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; 8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. 9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;

The Lord had placed these gifts in a vessel of honor. Those vessels must be kept cleansed that that which comes from them would be honoring to the Lord.

2 Timothy 2:20–21 (NASB95) — 20 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.

But it would seem that The Spiritual gifts were often used in a negative way, probable in the edification of oneself rather than in the service of and the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There were the false teachers, those claiming a gift, and maybe even through the agency of The Devil they were putting on signs and wonders.

Note folks there is a two-front battle. While battling persecution from human agency Satan is at work attacking spiritually.

Not only were there false were teachers but there are those who were listening and giving heed to what these false Prophets were saying and doing.

[1]Strong, J. (1995). In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship. [2]Strong, J. (1995). In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship. [3]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 660). United Bible Societies. [4]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains(electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 762). United Bible Societies. [5]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains(electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 439). United Bible Societies. [6]Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (1 Th 5:20). Lexham Press. [7]Constable, T. L. (1985). 1 Thessalonians. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 709). Victor Books.