RYAN: Pastor Dan, there is something I need to tell you right away.
DAN: Are you sure it can’t wait until after the worship service is over?
RYAN: No. No, this is important.
DAN: OK, what is it?
RYAN: Well, God told me that we need to change the color of the church carpet.
DAN: Oh, really?
RYAN: Yes, we need to put in canary yellow carpet.
DAN: Canary yellow?!?
RYAN: Yes, He said "canary yellow," and we need to do it this week.
DAN: Well, that is an interesting idea. Maybe we can discuss it later. I’m not sure the trustees will go for canary yellow, and actually, I’m not sure that we need a new carpet.
RYAN: But, Pastor Dan, this is not something we need to discuss. God told me this is what we need to do. I’m just giving you the message. We’d better do it.
DAN: What do you mean, God told you we need to put in canary yellow carpet this week?
RYAN: Just that. God told me. He spoke to me. I am just telling you what He said.
DAN: Did you hear an audible voice say this?
RYAN: No.
DAN: So, how do you know God told you this?
RYAN: How do I know? Well, I .. well, I just do!
DAN: But, Ryan, there is nothing in the Bible which even remotely talks about carpet color, and frankly, canary yellow just doesn’t seem like the color the Lord would recommend.
RYAN: Are you trying to tell me that God didn’t speak to me? Who are you to decide what God can or can’t say? I think when someone has a message from the Lord, you’d better listen!
DAN: Now, Ryan, let’s not get excited. You know, I think you will be real interested in the sermon today. Why don’t you just sit down and we’ll talk about the carpet later.
RYAN: Well, OK. But I sure hope Bob Rupp has a big roll of canary yellow carpet on hand.
I think most of us would agree that it is unlikely, very unlikely, that God would address us in the way that Ryan described. As Christians, however, we believe that the Lord does speak to us. Francis Schaeffer used to say that we are convinced God "is there and He is not silent." So, how does the Lord communicate to us? We believe it is primarily through the Bible, the written Word of God. We regard the words found in this Book as the very words of God. When we read and study the Bible, we believe that the Lord is speaking to us. Very few Christians disagree with that. But, are there any other ways besides the Bible that God speaks to us today? Now, we probably don’t think He will tell us to put canary yellow carpet in this room, but are there some ways other than the Bible through which God lets us know what He desires and what He expects from us? That is a very important question, and throughout history Christians have come up with a variety of answers.
Some, for example, have argued that the church, through an official teaching hierarchy, has the power to speak for God. Thus, God enables the church to set doctrinal and moral standards in addition to those found in the Bible. Others, especially liberal Protestants, claim that God speaks through our collective experience and reason. Thus, if there becomes a consensus in a church that homosexuality is not really a sin, then that would be seen as a new revelation from the Lord and would overrule what the Bible says about that topic. Another view, usually associated with Pentecostal and charismatic churches, is that God continues to reveal Himself through prophecy, interpreted tongues, words of knowledge and other spiritual gifts. Someone in a church gives a message from the Lord which contains encouragement or direction on a specific issue. In other words, they believe God communicates directly to His people through folks that possess these types of gifts. Another view, very common in Baptist circles, is that God does not speak to us in any other way than through the Bible. This Book is what tells us everything that God wishes to communicate to us.
Who is right? Well, the Bible doesn’t teach, nor do I believe, that God has appointed any specific leaders in the church to be His official, infallible spokesmen. I also think it would be very foolish to take a survey and pretend that our collective opinion equals the voice of God. It is not quite as easy to dismiss the gift of prophecy, however. The reason is because the Bible itself talks about the prophecy as a way that God speaks in the church. Today we are going to look at what 1 Corinthians 14 has to say on this topic. This chapter contains the Bible’s most extensive treatment of both the gift of tongues, which we talked about last week, and the gift of prophecy which we will explore today. As we do, my prayer is that God will help us understand how He communicates to us today, and that we would be more ready to hear and listen to His voice whenever He speaks.
1 Corinthians 14:1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. Paul makes it clear that it is a good thing, but exactly what is this gift of prophecy? There is a definition in 14:3 But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. OK, but what is this gift? I want to start by clarifying a couple of things that those individuals with the gift of prophecy are not.
1) They are not pastors. Some folks claim that what I do each Sunday is an example of prophecy. It is not. In Chapter 12 Paul distinguishes between prophecy and teaching, and he makes that distinction very clear in Ephesians 4:11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,... The job of the pastor, both in Corinth and Chisholm or wherever else Christians are meeting, is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and teach Christians the truth which is found in both the Old and New Testaments. We are to share what God has already revealed to us in His Word. That is our job, and we will talk about this more in a few minutes. The prophets, however, did more than just repeat what the Bible says. They apparently received new insights from the Lord which they were to share with the church. Now, this is a point where some folks, including some of my best friends, will say, "Well, in Corinth they did not have the New Testament. God needed to speak to the people through prophets, but now that we have the New Testament we don’t need them anymore. The gift of prophecy was for the 1st Century before the New Testament was written, but it is not something that God uses today." My response to this is, "Not necessarily," but more on that later.
2) Those in Corinth with the gift of prophecy are not Old Testament prophets. When the Old Testament prophets spoke, they spoke for God. They would preface their message with the phrase, "thus saith the Lord." The syllables that came out of their mouths were not just their words, but were also God’s words. Their words carried equal weight with what was written in the Bible. What Isaiah the prophet wrote was just as much God’s Word as what Moses wrote. That is why Isaiah and all the other Old Testament prophets are included in the Old Testament. Because they were truly God’s spokesmen, they never made mistakes. They only spoke what was true. Their words carried the same authority as if they had come directly from the mouth of God.
Friends, I’m convinced that those with the gift of prophecy at Corinth and in other New Testament churches never claimed to have that type of authority. Their words did not have the same weight as that of Scripture and could not be labeled as "God’s words." Yes, I believe God indeed spoke to these prophets, but the words they spoke to the people were not necessarily identical to the words that God had spoken. The prophet may not have understood exactly what the Lord had revealed to him. Or perhaps he understood but was unable to articulate precisely what the truth was. The words coming from God were pure, but because the New Testament prophet was a fallible human being, there could be some impurities in what came out of his mouth. The Lord, by some means, protected the Old Testament prophets from that and enabled them to speak 100% pure truth, but I don’t think He did that in the New Testament. These folks probably spoke 95%, 98%, 99.9% truth. In this way they are much like pastors. We try to be faithful in proclaiming God’s Word, but we know (at least we should know) that we can be mistaken. So, instead of prefacing their prophecy with "thus saith the Lord," I think the New Testament prophets probably would use phrases like, "I believe the Lord is telling me this," or "I think this is what God is saying to us." When people in the church heard a prophecy, they did not rush to write it down and insert it in their Bibles.
I also don’t believe that the essence of New Testament prophecy was a new revelation from God. I think the focus of the message that the prophets received and shared was reminding people of the truth which God had already revealed through the Old Testament and the apostles. Now there was also, no doubt, some instruction on applying this truth in particular situations, and the prophecies did sometimes include predictions of what would happen in the future. For example, in Acts 11:28 we read about a prophecy made by a man named Agabus where he predicts a great famine. I believe, however, that this type of prophecy was the exception rather than the rule. I suspect many prophecies focused on reminding people of God’s promises or on warning them what would happen if they turned away from the Lord.
What I want to stress, however, is that I believe the prophets in Corinth shared words from the Lord, but not the words of the Lord. Now, maybe you are thinking, "Pastor Dan, what are you talking about? From where are you getting this?" Let’s look at the last part of Chapter 14. I have just explained how I believe the gift of prophecy involves something more than preaching, but something less than speaking the words of God as the Old Testament prophets did. Defining and understanding prophecy in this way is the only way I can make sense out of this passage. 14:29 Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. What does it mean to "weigh carefully"? Well, I think it means to "decide if what has been said is true." Now, when Isaiah or other Old Testament prophets spoke, no one was supposed to weigh their prophecy. They spoke for God. No one was in any position to decide if what they said was right. But when a New Testament prophet spoke, that prophecy had to be tested and evaluated. Who would do this? Well, I believe that was the job of the elders, the spiritual leaders in each congregation.
Because in the 1st Century these folks were always men, males, it was not a debate in which women were to participate. That is why in Verses 33-35, Paul instructs the women to be silent during these discussions. Some folks, at least a few men, have thought Paul was making a blanket statement here and that he expected women to keep their lips ziplocked whenever they walked into a church building. But, back in Chapter 11 Paul said it was fine for women to pray and give prophecies in the church service as long as their head was covered. It seems clear to me that Paul’s prohibition in this text, against women speaking, refers to a meeting of the church elders where prophecies were evaluated. Now, some of you are wondering if men are still the only ones qualified to serve as elders in a church. Well, friends, "Wise men say, ’Only fools rush in’" .. and even I am not foolish enough to also try to tackle that issue today. Another time.
So, how would this all work? How should the gift of prophecy be used today? If someone comes up to me and says, "The Lord has told me that we should put canary yellow carpet in the church sanctuary this week," what would I do? Well, I would probably try to figure out a way to politely ignore them. I don’t know that a prophecy like that is even worth weighing. However, let’s say someone came to me and said, "Pastor Dan, I really believe the Lord has been telling me that our church needs to reach out more to the community. In fact, last night God specifically told me that we should ask Lowell Lundstrom to come here and do an evangelistic crusade." How should I respond? Well, first of all, it would be a mistake to just say, "OK, if that is what the Lord told you, I guess we’d better do that." Any supposed message from the Lord needs to be weighed and evaluated. It would also be a mistake to just brush this claim aside and say, "Well, that’s not a good idea because I don’t really like the Lundstroms’ country music." It is wrong to simply ignore someone’s claim that God has communicated to them in some way. He is God. He can certainly do that if He chooses. I don’t know how often He chooses to reveal Himself in this kind of manner, but it would be foolish to pretend He could not or never has. So, when someone claims to have a message from the Lord, it should not be blindly accepted, nor automatically dismissed. It needs to be weighed.
How is that done? Well, I think what I would do is call together our church deacon board members, our leaders, and ask them to help me evaluate the message that had been shared with me. The first thing we would do is pray, asking God for wisdom and discernment. James tells us that when we lack wisdom, we need to ask God. The next thing we would do is open our Bibles and seek to determine how the message fits with what God has said in the Word. The Bible is the objective standard by which any claim of receiving a message from God must be judged. As we do this, we would note that the Lord does indeed want us to reach out to our community. Then we would evaluate the consistency of a Lundstrom crusade with biblical models of evangelism. Is this the way the Lord wants us to reach our community? If we decide the supposed message from the Lord is inconsistent with what the Bible teaches, everything ends right there. If it contradicts Scripture in any way, we then know that it is not a message from God.
If there is consistency, however, if it fits with what the Bible says, there are some more questions we might ask. For example, I would probably ask the deacons if any of them had thought the Lord was leading us to do this. If two or three of them said, "Yes, for the last few weeks I have felt the Lord telling me that we should invite the Lundstroms to do a crusade here," then that would be a strong confirmation. However, if two or three said, "Yes, I believe we need to do more outreach in our community, but I have really felt the Lord was calling us to bring in a different speaker," then we would have more discussion. Let me also say that in our church, if I had even one deacon say, "No, I clearly don’t believe this is something God wants us to do," I would probably say, "OK, then we will wait." If at all possible, we want a consensus among our leaders that moving in a particular direction is indeed the Lord’s will before we do anything.
So, let me just say that if you believe sometime that the Lord gives you a message concerning our congregation or about an individual decision you need to make, I encourage you to share that with me or one of the other leaders in our church. We would try our best to honestly weigh that message to see if it truly is from God.
As we think about these things, there are two main points we need to remember. 1) We must not compromise the authority of Scripture by depending on other forms of revelation. It is tragic when Christians neglect to study Scripture because they are more interested in some message from God that a prophet or teacher has supposedly received. In the past couple of years I have heard numerous stories of Christians claiming to have received a special revelation from the Lord announcing that Jesus Christ was going to return to earth on January 1, 2000, or in recent months by January 1, 2001. The fact the Lord has not come back yet shows these were not really messages from God. But we did not have to wait until January 2 to figure that out. The Bible tells us that no one knows the time of the Lord’s return. (Matthew 24:36) That is knowledge that God says He chooses to keep for Himself. Any prophecy which gives a specific date for the return of Jesus Christ contradicts Scripture and should thus be rejected. But, often times, many Christians seem fascinated by these things. Why? I’m not sure. I agree with Chesterton who said that the problem with modern man is not that he refuses to believe the truth, but that he is willing to believe so much that is false. Friends, my admonition to you is this: Never believe any prophecy or so-called message from the Lord until it is weighed and evaluated according to the Bible, the written Word of God. It can be a serious mistake to do otherwise.
Friends, I believe that everything we need to know as Christians is found in the Bible. It is a sufficient source of revelation. It says in 2 Timothy 3:17 that this Book thoroughly equips us to follow and obey the Lord. The Bible is the firm foundation which God has given us. All other ground is sinking sand. This is the source of truth on which we need to build our lives.
Yet, we must be willing to listen if God chooses to speak to us in an "uncommon way" - in a way we don’t expect. By that I mean if He chooses to speak to us outside of the normal channels of the Scriptures, we need to still listen to what God says. Just because there is a lot of abuse by people who falsely claim they have received a message from God, doesn’t mean we need to slam the door shut on any possibility of God speaking to us in that way. Oh, I suspect it might be wise to kind of shut the door, but we need to leave it open just enough so that if God has something to say to us, we are able to hear Him.
"But, Pastor Dan, didn’t you just say that ’the Bible is a sufficient source of revelation, that all we need as Christians is in the Book’"? I surely did. That is very true. The Bible contains all that we need, but our gracious and generous God sometimes chooses to give us more than we need. Sometimes I believe He may choose to communicate with us in another way in order to provide special encouragement when we are down, or give direction when we are trying to make a decision. Oh, I’m not going to pretend these uncommon messages from God will always make us comfortable. Many of us kind of like the status quo. If someone says he or she has a message from the Lord which requires us to do something new or different, we probably don’t want to hear it. But if God is speaking to us, we’d better be willing to listen.
Friends, today I encourage you, I implore you, to listen for God’s voice each day. As you sit down at the kitchen table and read the Bible, listen for God’s voice. Ask the question: "God, what are you saying to me through Your Word today?" As you attend a Sunday School class or Bible study group, listen for God’s voice. As you discuss God’s Word with other believers, keep asking, "God, what do You want me to learn from this?" As you listen to me or another speaker teach the Bible, listen for God’s voice. Try to figure out what the message is that God wants you to hear and to apply in your life. Rely on God’s written Word to nourish your soul and give you the direction you need for life. And then, if you think you hear God speaking in some other way; maybe through an inaudible voice in your own heart; maybe through some words a friend speaks; maybe through a prophecy given by someone at church, make sure you listen. Listen to hear what is being said, and then weigh and test it to see if they are truly words to you from God. Oh, there are many voices in the world that we need to ignore, but when God speaks, we’d better listen.
Go to www.life.1stbaptist.org/sermons.htm for Pastor Dan’s sermon site containing full text messages
