Text: Jeremiah 23:9-40<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I. At the founding of the church, Peter quotes the prophet Joel – Acts 2:14-21<\/p>\n
A. A part of the foundation of the church were prophets – Ephesians 2:19-20<\/p>\n
B. People in denominations claim that prophecy continues<\/p>\n
1. Some claim they have prophets in their midst<\/p>\n 2. Others essentially claim they all prophesy. They do not believe you can\ntruly be a Christian without gifts of the Spirit, including the gift of\nprophecy.\n
II. The duties of the prophet<\/p>\n
A. A prophet was only allowed to speak what God told him<\/p>\n
1. Balaam understood this – Numbers 22:18-20, 38; 23:12<\/p>\n
a. But it did not stop him from trying to go against God<\/p>\n b. Failing, Balaam instructed Balak on how to turn God’s anger\nagainst the Israelites.\n
2. This warns us that a prophet has some control – I Corinthians 14:29-32<\/p>\n a. Notice that the other prophets weighed the words of the one\nspeaking\n b. This would minimize a person making a false prophecy from getting\naway with it – I John 4:1\n c. The words were weighed against what was already known –\nGalatians 1:6-10\n d. A mark of a true prophet was his consistency with the revealed\nword of God – Deuteronomy 13:1-5\n 3. Because it was God’s words, it must be carefully considered – I\nThessalonians 5:19-22\n
B. Prophecy involves teaching – I Corinthians 14:31, Ephesians 4:11-13<\/p>\n
1. I Corinthians 14:22 – It is a sign to believers<\/p>\n
2. It was to be used for edification – I Corinthians 14:26<\/p>\n
3. Demonstrated by Judas and Silas – Acts 15:32<\/p>\n
C. Prophecy can involve the telling of future events – Acts 11:27-28; 21:10-11<\/p>\n
1. A prophet is a spokesman for God and God knows the future – Isaiah 44:6-8<\/p>\n
2. God declares the result at the beginning – Isaiah 46:9-11<\/p>\n
3. The ability to accurately state the future is a mark of God – Isaiah 41:21-23<\/p>\n
4. It is used to test a prophet – Deuteronomy 18:22<\/p>\n
5. Not all prophecy is fulfilled in the prophets lifetime – Matthew 13:17<\/p>\n a. “What good is that? By the time we find out he was a false prophet,\nhe is long since dead.”\n b. Take the reverse thought: If every prophecy was fulfilled in the\nlifetime of the prophet, the one could claim that the prophet was\njust good at reading current events or manipulating events to get\nthem fulfilled.\n
c. God’s prophets often combined short-term prophesies with long-term prophesies. The short-term ones proved the truth of the long-term prophesies.<\/p>\n (1) Example: Jeremiah 28:9-17 – The people knew Jeremiah\nwas right and Hananiah was wrong.\n (2) I Kings 13:1-5 – The prophet’s words were known to be\ntrue because of the short-term prophecy. It was fulfilled 300\nyears later – II Kings 23:15-16\n 6. True prophecy is not vaguely worded statements which any of a multitude\nof events could match. God’s prophesies were filled with specifics – telling\nof future events and even naming who was to do it.\n
a. Another example Isaiah 44:28-45:1<\/p>\n
b. Fulfilled in Ezra 1:1-3 145 years after Isaiah’s prophecy!<\/p>\n c. Think what it would take to predict an event 145 years in advance,\nnaming the king of a foreign nation which wasn’t even in power at\nthe time, nor was the king involved was even born.\n
D. Women as prophets<\/p>\n
1. Philip’s daughters were prophetesses – Acts 21:8-9<\/p>\n
2. Anna was a prophetess under the Old Law – Luke 2:36-38<\/p>\n
3. It was predicted to be for men and women – Acts 2:17-18<\/p>\n 4. Some look at these women and claim that God approves of women leaders,\nelse why would women have the gift of prophecy\n
a. God plainly stated the role of women – I Timothy 2:11-15<\/p>\n b. A woman who prophesied had to wear a covering to show she was\nunder authority – I Corinthians 11:3–10\n c. She was not allowed to speak in the assembly of the church – I\nCorinthians 14:34-38\n (1) Recall that Paul stated that when prophecy was done was\nunder the control of the prophet – I Corinthians 14:31-32\n (2) Prophecy involved teaching, and a woman was not\npermitted to teach men publicly.\n
III. Was prophecy meant to continue?<\/p>\n
A. It was partial and would end – I Corinthians 13:8-10<\/p>\n
1. Prophesy would be sealed up – Daniel 9:24<\/p>\n
2. Prophesy would end – Zechariah 13:1-2<\/p>\n
B. “But wisdom and understanding continue.”<\/p>\n 1. There were gifts of wisdom and understanding from the Spirit – I\nCorinthians 12:7-11\n 2. Yet, it does not mean that all faith, wisdom, and understanding are\nmiraculous gifts of the Spirit.\n
IV. Warnings against false prophets<\/p>\n
A. Just because a prophet claims to have words from the Lord it doesn’t make it so<\/p>\n 1. Jeremiah had problems with false prophets contradicting what he taught –\nJeremiah 14:13-16\n 2. Where does a false prophecy come from? The deceptions of the false\nprophet’s own mind – Jeremiah 14:14; Ezekiel 13:2-3\n
3. They speak their own desires – Jeremiah 23:16, 25-27<\/p>\n
B. Just because a false prophet has followers doesn’t prove his words are true<\/p>\n 1. Jeremiah 5:30-31 – People don’t care if the doctrine is wrong so long as it\nleaves them feeling good.\n
2. They want to be taught what they want to hear – II Timothy 4:3-4<\/p>\n 3. False prophets give the people what they want because popularity is a form\nof power – Jude 16\n
C. A false prophet plagiarizes the words of others – Jeremiah 23:30<\/p>\n
1. They pad their words with God’s to make it sound legitimate<\/p>\n
D. A false prophet can be detected by the life he lives – Matthew 7:15-23<\/p>\n
1. Jeremiah 23:13-15 – The false prophets lived unholy lives.<\/p>\n
E. A false prophet’s teaching doesn’t improve the listener – Jeremiah 23:17, 21-22, 32<\/p>\n 1. Sensuality is popular, so these teachers teach things that appeals to the\nsenses – smooth words, luxuries, fulfilling worldly desires – II Peter 2:2, 9-10, 12-14\n
2. They become unreasoning animals – Jude 10<\/p>\n
V. Prophets were important in the early church<\/p>\n
A. The perfect will of God took several years to record.<\/p>\n
1. The prophets were involved in getting that word recorded.<\/p>\n
2. They served as a partial replacement until the recording was completed.<\/p>\n B. The role of prophets was stated to be temporary and was said to end near the\nbeginning of the church.\n
C. People who claim to prophesy today are frauds<\/p>\n
1. Proof is in their lives and in their messages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Text: Jeremiah 23:9-40 I. At the founding of the church, Peter quotes the prophet Joel – Acts 2:14-21 A. A part of the foundation of the church were prophets – Ephesians 2:19-20 B. People in denominations claim that prophecy continues 1. Some claim they have prophets in their midst 2. Others essentially claim they all prophesy. They do not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[667,483],"class_list":["post-6953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","tag-organization-of-the-church","tag-prophets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7440,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/arent-prophets-useless-if-they-dont-submit-to-the-churchs-authority\/","url_meta":{"origin":6953,"position":0},"title":"Aren’t prophets useless if they don’t submit to the church’s authority?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Our recent experience in our church with prophets was a very bad one; even God\u2019s elect can be fooled and conned! Granted, they are gifted and see into the spiritual realm in a way that those have not been anointed cannot see. I think that the enemy does and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6949,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-about-prophecy-in-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":6953,"position":1},"title":"What about prophecy in the church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 23, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What about prophecy in a church? Should the prophet ask the minister to check the word before it is given? Should a prophet first be 'released' into the ministry of prophets before they are free to prophesy or give words in a meeting? Answer: Just because a role was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39044,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-prophecy-cease-when-people-claim-to-be-prophets-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":6953,"position":2},"title":"How can prophecy cease when people claim to be prophets today?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: First, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to address my questions because it has been bothering me for a while now. I am a born-again Christian and still relatively young in faith. I read on this site that an end to all prophets was declared by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3257,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-are-the-false-prophets-among-us-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":6953,"position":3},"title":"Who are the false prophets among us today?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Who are the false prophets among us today? Answer: If you are looking for names of specific people, I'm afraid the list would be too large and ever-changing to appropriately answer. The Bible warns us that there will always be false prophets. \"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86714,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-preachers-prophets\/","url_meta":{"origin":6953,"position":4},"title":"Are preachers prophets?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good afternoon. My family and I are members of the Church of Christ, and I have been reading your articles on your church website for several years now, learning a great deal. If you don't mind responding to this email, I would greatly appreciate it. Recently, the preacher at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":64487,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-have-problems-with-people-wanting-to-do-mass-prayers\/","url_meta":{"origin":6953,"position":5},"title":"We have problems with people wanting to do mass prayers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 9, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have a problem with some Christians imitating the Pentecostal's mass prayers where many people pray out aloud at once. I need your help with the Bible refutation. Answer: People tend to gravitate to things that are exciting and novel. A large noisy party is exciting. 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