I’ve got a few things in my bag this morning. I wonder if you can work out what they do. Some of you might know straight away, so please give those who don’t, time to have a look and a couple of attempts to work it out before putting us out of our misery.
Just a few household items and tools. Some easier to work out what they do then others. Some needing specialist knowledge to understand why it’s important that they do what they do. All with a purpose and a function driving their design.
This morning we are continuing our sermon series exploring the spiritual gift of prophecy. Last week Nick started us of on this journey, do catch up on the podcast or video channels if you missed it. Or Go along to the small group course starting this week looking at prophecy through Lent. This morning we’re exploring the question, “What does prophecy do?”
So. What does prophecy do? The answer to question is quite wide. It does lots of different things, and we’ll explore some of them this morning, but before we do, I’d like to get something foundational in. Something that underpins everything else. All the other things that prophecy does are a practical outworking of this. This single, most important answer to this question is found in Revelation 19, verse 10. John, the writer, is talking to an angel in his vision, and the angel says,
“For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.”
That’s it – “It is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.”
At its most basic, most fundamental, this is what prophecy does. It points to Jesus. It tells about Jesus. It bears witness to Jesus. It speaks the words of Jesus. What does prophecy do? Prophecy points to Jesus. Say it with me. Prophecy points to Jesus.
If you get nothing else out of this morning, then remember that. It seems to me that we see this working out really clearly in the first of our readings, that we heard read from Matthew’s eye witness account of the good news of Jesus.
This episode comes early in the account. I was tempted to say that we’ve only just read it at Christmas, but we’re already in Lent, closer to Easter than Christmas, so maybe not. Anyway. Joseph has heard that Mary is pregnant, and is disturbed. What is he going to do?
He decides that he is going to end their betrothal, quietly, but definitely. Right up until an angel appears to him in a dream and tells him not to.
One question that might occur to us is, “is this prophecy?”
Well, it seems to me that there are two examples of prophecy here. The first is fairly clear, the quote from the prophet Isaiah. We are reminded by Matthew that the prophet Isaiah, several hundred years earlier had seen the coming of God’s chosen one, someone who would rescue people from the mess that they had got into. This prophecy very clearly points to Jesus, that he would be “God with us”.
The second example is a bit less clear cut. Normally when we talk about prophecy, we tend to have in mind a word of knowledge or insight, that comes from God for us to share with someone else. It’s quite unusual for angels to speak directly into dreams for personal application. Having said that, it is the word of God spoken to someone, so it seems to me that it does fall into a wide definition of prophecy, even it’s not really associated with Joseph having a gift of prophecy. Again, it definitely points to Jesus, telling Joseph his name – Jesus, which means God saves.
So, with that basic understanding in mind, that prophecy points to Jesus, let’s move on to consider what else prophecy does.
In our second reading we heard from Paul’s first letter to the Christians living in the Greek city of Corinth. We was writing to help them make sense of their new faith, and to live well together as they grew in it. In this section he’s teaching about spiritual gifts, and particularly about prophecy. In this teaching he covers some of what prophecy does.
In verses 3 we read,
“The one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort.”
What does prophecy do? It strengthens, encourages, comforts.
It seems to me that there is quite a lot of overlap between these ideas. They are all positive, loving, and kind things to do, and we can see them working together in Joseph’s story.
What does the angel say first?
“Joseph, Son of David” The angel reminds Joseph of his heritage, perhaps encouraging him to have the faith of his ancestor, maybe reminding him of David’s strength in difficult situations.
“Do not be afraid.” The angel comforts Joseph – it’s OK, God’s got this, you don’t need to be anxious or afraid.
What does prophecy do? It strengthens, encourages, comforts.
What else does it do?
As read on in Paul’s letter, into verse 4, we read this:
“the one who prophesies edifies the church.”
What does prophecy do? It edifies the church.
The example we’ve been looking at most so far has been focussed on an individual, Joseph. But it is important to remember that prophecy often has a community focus, even when it is given to an individual. The angel spoke to Joseph, but that conversation happened on behalf of and for the sake of the church that was to be.
It’s an unusual word, isn’t it, “edify”. We don’t use it much. When I read it, I kind of thought I knew what it meant, but I thought I’d better check. Apparently it comes from an old French word, meaning, “to build”. In that sense it’s related to the word “edifice” which is used to describe a great big complicated building. So, at its root, edify means “to build up”. As time went on it came to mean to build up someone’s mind and thinking, especially about moral or religious themes.
So, what does prophecy do? It builds up the community of faith in the way we think about and understand our faith and what it means for the way we live.
When we understand this, we see how this works in Joseph’s conversation with the angel. Of course, the conversation was a private one, but he shared it, probably with Mary, and eventually it came to Matthew who wrote it down. By it we understand that the Holy Spirit was instrumental in Jesus’ coming to be one of us, that Jesus was sent be the Father to save us from our sins. These truths edify us – they build up what we understand about God and about our faith, and guide our actions.
There is another aspect of what prophecy does, that is not mentioned by Paul in this passage, but which is important for us to understand. This is the aspect of prophecy associated with warning and correction.
Sometimes prophetic warnings are given to prevent someone or people from carrying on down the wrong way by sharing what the consequences of going on that way will be. Many of the old testament prophecies are like this. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others wrote of the consequences for the people of God of continuing to be unfaithful to God, and calling on them to change their minds and behaviour. Interwoven with these warnings, however, are also comforting visions of the alternative, of the positive and good things that will come if people turn back to God.
Other prophetic warnings are given to let people know that although difficult things might happen to them, that God is still with them. At the end of Jesus time on earth, in conversation with Peter, he warns him that towards the end of Peter’s life he will be imprisoned and will die for his faith. This wasn’t to stop Peter heading down that path, it was to reassure him that when these things happened, God was still going to be with him.
Prophetic corrections don’t always come with a warning. The one that Joseph received didn’t. We’ve already talked about the way in which it was comforting, strengthening, encouraging, and edifying. It was also correcting. Before it came Joseph was going to divorce Mary. Afterwards he wasn’t. His course was corrected, it was put right.
It seems to me, then, that even in those areas that are more challenging when it comes to what prophecy does, those areas of warning and correction, we still see the other things woven through – comfort, strengthening, encouraging, and edification. We also see that they are about pointing people back to Jesus. Which brings us back to where we started.
When the youngsters were in, we talked about what it looks like to “Eagerly desire” something. The items I showed you earlier are unlikely to have provoked great desire in you, though in the past I have had people really taken with the spaghetti measurer. I wonder if you’ve had the experience of seeing something – a kitchen gadget, a tool, or some kind of device and thought. I really like what that does. I really want that. As we reflect on what prophecy does, on the way that it warns, corrects, comforts, strengthens, encourages, edifies, and most of all, points to Jesus I hope that it will fan that flame into desire for us and for our church. We need these things, and the spiritual gift of prophecy brings them to us. Surely that is something to eagerly desire.
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