A Prophecy Fulfilled, by John

A Prophecy Fulfilled.
John 15:18 -16:4

1. Do you think it is easier for a child or an adult to become a Christian?
(1) Any Christian witness will tell you it is easier for a child.
a. They will tell you a child has already learned to trust the people around him, and that makes it easier.
b. They will also tell you that most children respond easily to God’s love because they are already loved by their parents.
c. Another thing they will add is, they haven’t experienced the evil that most adults have already faced.
(2) Becoming a Christian requires a lot of courage for adults who have experienced all of the bad things that happen to people.
2. Sooner or later, Christian witnesses will refer to this Scripture text as proof. What I see in these Words of Jesus is that they are “A Prophecy Fulfilled.”

I. Jesus says we are outcasts in the world. Vv 18 -21

1. The world hates Christians.
(1) We wonder why terrorists can’t act like Christians.
(2) We wonder why so many people around the world hate Americans.
2. They have strong reasons for their hatred.
(1) Some observers will tell you other nations are jealous of what we have.
(2) Some others will tell you that they hate us because we look down our noses at the rest of the world and think we are better than they are.
(3) They leave out the one thing that causes them to hate us, and it is double-barreled.
3. The world hates Christians for three reasons.
(1) First, it hates us because we don’t belong to them, we don’t fit in with their ways of life.
(2) Second, They hate us because they hate Jesus! And His Father and ours. v. 18.
3. They also hate us because they really don’t have any inkling about who God is!
(1) They don’t know He is our Father!
(2) They don’t know He wants to be their Father.
(3) They don’t realize that Jesus is God’s Son.
(4) They can’t see, taste, touch or feel the Holy Spirit! So He must not be real!
4. With that background, it is natural for them to think we are crazy, ignorant and weird!
5. People Jesus said it right! We are outcasts in this world!

II. Have you thought about the reason Jesus told His disciples they were outcasts?

1. 16:1 tells us why. “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray!” Staying straight with God is vitally important!
2. God wants us to be like Jesus!
(1) Earthly parents’ desires are so much like God’s.
a. We want our children healthy, amen?
b. We want our children’s bodies and minds clean, amen?
c. We want our children to grow all their lives, amen?
d. We want them to be well-educated, able to enjoy a productive life, amen?
e. We want to love our children, and we want them to love us, amen?
3. That’s exactly what God wants for us, and He plans for us to have these things for all eternity!
4. Jesus told His disciples that they were already outcasts, and they would be as long as they were on this earth!
ill. When my brother was dying with cancer, he joined the Catholic Church with his wife. I thought I knew the reason, but I asked him to give me his reason anyway. He told me, “Well, it’s the oldest church! It’s the largest denomination in the world! I like it’s pomp and ritual.”
The one reason he did not give me was that it would make it easier on his wife after he was gone. He knew the control they had over people.
Christian, you may feel like an outcast on earth! You are! But one day we are going to be in heaven with Jesus, and we will be citizens of heaven! We will be children of the most high God! And where will those be who made us outcasts on earth?
5. Jesus wants us to be God’s lovely children, and we will be! He never fails!

III. Hatred bears fruit Always!

1. Jesus prophesied how it would happen.
2. The world makes us outcasts.
3,. Hatred always results in persecution. Ill. They thought they were serving God when they stoned stephen, and Muslim terrorists think they are serving God when kill Christians now.
4. This prophecy is being fulfilled, and it will be continuously fulfilled until Jesus comes!
4. There are some Christians who think they are doing God’s will when they praise people who kill homosexuals, black people, or anyone who practices abortions.
7. We have to issue a warning right here. It’s so easy to get off track and overflow with hatred instead being one of the hated!

IV. God Gifted us with His Spirit to overcome the world.

1. God’s Spirit prepares us.
(1) The Spirit gifts us to do God’s work.
(2) He is our constant companion and He comforts us.
2. He has all the power needed for the job. No one can stand against Him! He is God!
3. There’s an interesting account in Daniel 10:10 - 21. The angel Gabriel speaks to Daniel. Let’s read it....
4. There are spiritual beings strong enough to require the efforts of God’s strongest angels to control them! (These are not physical. The prince of Persia and of the Greeks are not Cyrus, nor Alexander tje great-but spiritual beings!)
5. A little later in John 16:7, Jesus said it was good for Him to go away. Apparently the Spirit would not indwell Christians unless Jesus returned to heaven. I don’t know why that was true, but I suspect it wasn’t fitting. Jesus was and is in complete control. To some it might have seemed that He wasn’t if Christians were filled with the Spirit.
6. We can overcome the world and it’s hate through the power of God’s indwelling Holy Spirit!

Conclusion:

1. It may seem like we are losing the battle here on earth, but we are not.
2. God is in charge even though the people of the world have made us outcasts in our own society..
3. We must keep on doing what we would do if we were fully accepted by the world as God’s chosen children.
4. We will overcome, not by our might, not by our intelligence, not by our social standing, but by God’s Spirit Who does Christ’s work in each of us!
5. Look at your own life. Do you feel like an outcast? Is the world too much for you?
6. The answer to all your problems is Jesus. In Jesus you are always winners!
7. Make Him the Lord and Savior of your life!

ECC 9/25/2005

Biblical Prophets, by John.

Prophets

Everyone in the U.S.A. beyond childhood is familiar with the word “prophet.” Not too many adults are very familiar with the word itself, it’s origin, and really to what it refers. I believe the only true prophets are those called by God to deliver His message to the people He created. Most anyone would surmise that the job of a prophet would be to prophesy, but that adds nothing to our understanding of the word, or to the office of prophet. Since I used the word office, I must also immediately add that men do not choose to prophesy, but prophets are called by God and gifted by His Spirit.
The word “prophecy” is transliterated from the Greek language with very little change. In Greek, the word is phonetically pronounced, “pro-FAY-tase.” It is used to translate three Old Testament words, “ro-EH,” “na-BVI” and “cho-SEH.” Roeh comes from a verb which means “to see” or “vision.” It refers to seeing what others may not have the spiritual ability to see, and therefore, to a trancelike state in which God’s message is revealed. Nabvi is probably the most used word for prophet. It comes from a word which means to speak or sing by inspiration, or to speak God’s message simply.
Abraham, Aaron Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, and all of the prophets of the Old Testament were called Nabvi.
Choseh was used less frequently. It also is derived from a word meaning “to see.” It deals with a person seeing and speaking out against the sinful actions of society in general, or an individual in particular. It is used in Isaiah 20:10. Isaiah gives the Lord’s message to the people telling them that they are rebellious and will not listen to God’s Law. They told the prophets (choseh) not to prophesy, but to prophesy lies. I can’t think of another place that it is used.
According to 1 Samuel 9:9 Prophets (nabvi) were called seers (roeh) prior to that time, so it is natural that most of the usages in the Old Testament are nabvi.
Now let’s move to the New Testament for greater understanding. Some form of the word “prophet” is used 212 times in the New Testament, so it is a very important word to know well, and we should know some important truths about the person of a prophet. We have already said a generally accepted definition of a prophet is a person called by God to deliver a message to someone. Is that a good definition? Let’s examine it according to Scripture.
Most men and women called prophets and prophetesses in the Gospels were Old Testament prophets. They had either never seen Jesus, or they were seeing Him for the first time. In Matthew 1:20-23, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream. (Angel is “angelos” in Greek and simply means “messenger.” There is little reason for us to attach wings, haloes, etc. to them). He reminded Joseph of God’s message from Isaiah 7:14, which says that a young woman would conceive and bear a child and his name would be Immanuel (God with us). He specified that Joseph name that child Jesus. Jesus means Savior.” The angel also assured Joseph that Jesus was a child of the Holy Spirit. The Isaiah prophecy originally referred to any naturally born child after Isaiah prophesied. The message that went with the prophecy originally concerned two kings who were enemies of Israel. They would be dead before any child could be born and weaned! That would be approximately three years. In that prophecy, the mothers were married. In the application by the angel to Joseph, Mary, a virgin, fit Isaiah’s prophecy precisely.
That Scripture tells us something important about God’s prophecy. The people to whom it was given understood it exactly. That prophecy was fulfilled a second time when Jesus was born, and those Jews of Isaiah’s day probably had no inkling that it would be. We must conclude that any of God’s prophecies may be fulfilled more than once!
Paul deals with Spiritual Gifts in several of his epistles. Let’s consider I Corinthians 12 first. In verse 4, he tells us that the Holy Spirit is in charge of spiritual gifts, and in the next verses that God administers them! There may be some prophets who are not under God’s control, but they are not Christian, and they are not godly!
A good example of a lying prophet is in Jeremiah 28. Hananiah’s prophecies were lies. When the Lord gave Jeremiah a message with a wooden yoke on his neck as an object lesson, Hananiah took the yoke and broke it. He then prophesied victory over Nebuchadnezzar. That was opposite to God’s message, and God sent Jeremiah back to Hananiah with a message for him. He promised him that he would die before the year was finished. He died in the seventh month of that year.
2 Peter 2:1 says, “But there were also false prophets among the people just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves.” It is a dangerous thing to be a false prophet!
In verse 7, he tells us that the purpose of all of the Spirit’s gifts is the good of God’s people. Christian prophets cannot, and do not try, to call down curses on people. Nor do they judge people. Romans 2:1 applies to prophets just as much as it does to other people. When we judge, we are wrong because we are sinners ourselves.
Beginning in verse 8, the Spirit’s gifts are listed. In the order given, they are: Wisdom, Knowledge, faith, healings, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, different sorts of tongues and the interpretation of those tongues.
Hebrew writers and speakers always listed the most important things first and the others followed in their rank of importance. Tongues and interpretation of tongues comes last! Wisdom, knowledge and faith come first! Prophecy is fifth in the list! It is a wonderful thing to be a prophet, but wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing and miraculous powers rank higher as gifts of the Spirit.
Beginning in verse 12, Paul tells us that another important part of our knowledge about spiritual gifts, including prophecy, is that we are all part of the body of Christ, and spiritually we are just as closely connected as physical body parts are. Prophets do not stand alone! They are part of the body!
Since prophets are directed by God’s Spirit as they prophesy, prophets naturally have the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. Galatians 5:22-26 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” Prophet’s characters will show these fruits in their lives.
Romans 11:29 says, “For God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.” When God calls a person to be a prophet, that person will always be a prophet! As a servant of God, Romans 12:1,2 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
In Romans 12:6, a person’s use as a prophet is in direct proportion to his faith, and prophesying is first in this list. I believe that it is first here because a pastor of a church spends a lot of time preaching, and most of his preaching is prophetic according to the Old Testament words for prophecy. He sees what is wrong. He looks into the needs of the future, and his messages are filled with the Good News of Jesus, the need for confession, contrition, and forgiveness, and the need for preparation to serve the Lord both now and in the future.
Ephesians 4:11-13 gives another listing of God’s gifts. Apostles heads the list, then prophets, then evangelists, and then pastors and teachers. The sentence construction indicates that the last two may be one person, and I believe that is usually the case. Verses 12,13 tell us that all of these are to prepare God’s people for the work of Christ, to take them from spiritual infants to spiritual adults. There is a second list in I Corinthians 12:28. It is very similar to the one in Ephesians.
Taken altogether, I think we can safely conclude that a prophet is: 1) Called of God. 2) Has Christian character showing the fruit of the Spirit. 3) Looking out for the good of God’s people. 4) Humble. 5) Ready to deliver God’s message to the people to whom God wants to speak! The calling to be an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a pastor, a teacher is irrevocable. God does not change His mind even though we sometimes may.

In addition to the above, we must add a note concerning the spirit of prophecy as is found in I John 4:1-4. “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. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

There are, as stated, many false prophets in the world. You test the prophets by whether they acknowledge Jesus both in word and in daily living. As Jesus told us, we cannot get sweet, fresh water from a salt-water well. A true prophet will give you a good picture of Jesus in his/her life. We must keep our spiritual eyes open all the time, and God will reveal the truth to us.

Can We See Death as God Declares It? by John

CAN WE SEE DEATH AS GOD DECLARES IT? LET’S TRY!
Psalm 116:15, John 11:1-44

I. Once, Dolores and I visited at the hospital with a
dying lady. She stirred me to develop this mes-
sage. Garnetia’s death brought it to mind again.
2. Most of us don’t come face to face with physical
death very often.
(1) When we do, it generally affects us deeply.
(1) We may become depressed.
(2) We may become angry.
(3) We get scared as we consider our own future.
(4) We may even begin to grieve for someone
before they die.
(2) Death once was commonplace to people.
a. There were no morticians on the American frontier most of the time.
b. People usually had to take care of their own family members, dead and alive. Their neighbors helped when they could.
c. That meant children became acquainted with death at an early age and weren’t too surprised when it happened to people around them.
3. Today, we live highly insulated lives.
(1) Most people who are terminally ill die in hospitals away from the eyes of the family except the chosen few.
(2) Bodies used to be kept at home until burial. Now we have mortuaries that do that for us.
(3) We only speak of death in hushed tones, but children hear, and death takes on an ominous overtone to children exposed to our protective devices.
4. Does God view death like we do? If He doesn’t, can we begin to understand death the way He does?
(1) I want us to spend this time thinking about death.
(2) I don’t want to be depressing, insensitive, or scary.
(3) I do want us to be prepared for death when it comes.
(4) I want us to see death as God does if we can!

I. PSALM 116:15 AND JOHN 11:1-44 SEEM TO
CONTRADICT EACH OTHER ABOUT GOD’S
CARE.

1.This is a good time to note neither God nor His Word ever contradict each other.
(1) Make that a cardinal rule to guide you in Bible
study.
(2) Then look for ways both statements can fit together without contradiction.
(3) You may find more than one, but one will certainly be right.
2. It becomes obvious from these two statements in Psalms and John that God sees death quite differently from the way most of us see it.
(1) The death of His saints is precious to the Lord.
The Bible says so in our text!
(2) It’s obvious Jesus didn’t consider physical death anything to worry about.
a. He indicated that in John 11:4,14. He waited until Lazarus was physically dead before he responded to Martha’s and Mary’s call.
b. The world thinks life is all over when a person dies, but not to God! Jesus showed us!
aa. He planned to raise Lazarus from the dead!
bb. We need to know the One Who gives life originally controls it all the way through, and He can do whatever He wants with it!
3. If that’s all we see, we’ve missed the main point.
(1) If you miss the main point here, your suffering and fears will intensify.
(2) Jesus evidently allowed Lazarus to die physically so we would see two things.
a. First, Jesus would raise Himself from the dead just like He raised Lazarus.
b. Second, physical death ends nothing good for us.
c. Now don’t misunderstand me.
aa. I didn’t say a Christian and his family would feel no pain.
bb. And I didn’t say we wouldn’t experience physical death.
cc. Jesus didn’t say that either.
dd. Physical death is destined for human beings as a natural end of physical life. (Hebrews 9:27)
4. That leads us to say the inevitable.

II. DEATH IS NOT PHYSICAL. IT’S SPIRITUAL.

1. Let’s distinguish between the two kinds of death.
(1) Jesus called physical death “sleep.”
(2) He spoke of awakening Lazarus from his “sleep.”
2. He was speaking of an entirely different thing when He said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Mt 10:28.
3. Jesus came to free us from the power of death.
(1) God decreed every soul should die physically. Hebrews 9:27.
(2) He also decreed every sinner would die spiritually, and physical death ends our opportunity to be saved.
(3) Paul talked about the victory we have over the second death in 1 Corinthians 15:50-58. (Let’s READ it!)
(4) In Revelation 2:11 and 20:14, Jesus speaks of the second death
a. As far as we can tell, “second death,” is another designation for spiritual death.
b. Note in 20:6 Jesus says the second death will have no power over those who are in the first resurrection.

III. GOD’S CHILDREN HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR FROM DEATH

1. We are a long way from perfect in understanding as well as life-style, but we can still live by faith.
2. We probably will feel a number of disquieting things about prysical death.
(1) We never get done all we think we should, and that makes us have regrets.
(2) We dread the separation we may have from loved ones.
(3) Possibly our biggest dread is pain, and we may have a lot or a little.
3. Let’s look at the positive side.
(1) God is the One Who calls us home, and He knows what we have accomplished. He’s the only Judge. If He’s satisfied, we should be, too, shouldn’t we?
(2) We leave loved ones here, but don’t forget the loved ones we’ll be united with in God’s presence!
(3) We love our flesh, and we’ll have every kind of emotion when we face death, but behind all of those creeping fears, will be our faith, and underneath us will be the everlasting arms of Jesus!
(4) “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Psalm 116:15.
4. Physical death will happen unless Jesus comes first, but either way, we have nothing to fear.

conclusion:

1. Don’t let Satan destroy your peace. God cares about us, His children.
2. Try to see physical death as it is. Ask God to help you see and understand death as it really is.
3. Trust His judgment about the time and way we are to leave this earth.
4. Make sure physical death only means you will be ushered into the presence of God. For many, it will be eternal destruction.
5. Trust Jesus right now, and He will take you through physical death into God’s presence.
6. Physical death for you is just a something you pass through on your way to eternal bliss with your heavenly Father, and it is over in a flash!
7. Have you trusted Jesus? You can right now while we pray.


Emmanuel Community Church 9/04/2005