Tag: prophesy

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2 Peter

What our faith is built on

2 Peter

What is our faith built on? Why do we believe what we believe?

At the very base, it’s built on God himself and who he is. And it’s built on our experience of him. We’ve experienced God; we’ve tasted the Lord and seen that he is good.

The problem, of course, is that God is invisible. We can’t literally touch him or have conversations where we actually hear his voice. So how do we know that we are actually experiencing God in our lives? That it’s not just our imagination?

And people from all over the world claim to have  had spiritual experiences as well, all the while denying the things we believe as Christians.

How can we know that our experiences are superior to theirs? That it is our experiences, not theirs, that are based on reality and not on mere emotion or myth?

That is what Peter addresses here.

He says,

We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. (2 Peter 1:16)

Many people today try to deny that Jesus ever even existed. Or that if he did actually exist, we can’t possibly know the truth of what he actually said and did.

They claim that the whole Jesus story was built on pagan sources and jump through hoops to try to prove that claim.

But Peter says, “No. That’s not what we did. We were there. We saw Jesus. When he was on the mountain of transfiguration, we saw his glory and heard the voice of God himself. (16-18).”

More Peter tells us,

And we have the word of the prophets made more certain. (2 Peter 1:19)

This verse is apparently a bit vague in the Greek. It’s possible that Peter’s saying that their experience had increased their confidence on the Old Testament writings. But the new NIV translates the verse this way:

We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable. (19)

In which case, Peter is saying, “Not only do we have our experience, but we also have God’s word to back up our experience and show that there is reality behind it.”

But either way, we base our faith not only on our experience but on God’s word.

Through God’s word, we see how he has worked in the lives of people in the past, and we see there is consistency when we compare their experiences with our experiences of him today.

We also see the words of the prophets and how the things they prophesied actually came true. We see this especially in their prophesies of Jesus.

How can we know that the things in the Bible were actually true?

Well archaeology has gone a long way to proving a lot of the historical facts of the Bible. But how can we know that the things written about God are true? That they actually got God’s words right?

Peter tells,

Above all, you must understand that no prophesy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.

For prophesy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21)

In other words, when people wrote the scriptures we had, they weren’t just writing what they thought was true about God. Rather, the Holy Spirit guided their thoughts and words.

This is not to say that he dictated everything they said (although there are some examples of dictation). But God used each person according to their personality, education, and writing styles.

He used shepherds, fishermen, kings, priests, tax collectors, and doctors, among others.

There were 40 different authors, from three different continents, using three different languages, and who lived over a period that spanned 1500 years.

And yet their testimony all agree as to who God is and what he has done.

How can we not have confidence that our faith is true?

And so Peter says,

You will do well to pay attention to [God’s Word], as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our heart. (2 Peter 1:19)

The day dawning refers to Christ’s return, and the morning star is Christ himself. And so what Peter is saying is, until Christ, the true light of the world appears, pay attention to the light he has left us.

His word is a lamp to our feet in this dark world. It shows us who God is and it shows us the path we are to walk in order to please him. So that’s what we are to build our faith on.

How about you? Is your faith based merely on your experience? Or on God’s word?

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1 Corinthians

Understanding our gifts

1 Corinthians

This is one of the harder passages to interpret. I’ve heard several interpretations on it.

I’m not sure that the one I have is the correct one and it may change in the future, but for what it’s worth, here it is.

Again, Paul is talking about the contrast between tongues and prophecy and why he prefers to see prophecy in the church rather than tongues. He first says,

Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. (1 Corinthians 14:20)

In what way were the Corinthians like children?

They were acting like children in that spiritual gifts, particularly the gift of tongues, was like a new toy to them.

They played with it, without really thinking about what it was for or what effects it might have on others.

All they knew was that they enjoyed “playing” with it, perhaps for the spiritual benefit it gave them in their souls (verse 4), and perhaps for the fleshly benefit of showing off what they could do to unbelievers.

And Paul says, “Hey. With regard to evil, be as innocent as infants. But in the way you think about spiritual gifts and other matters, grow up. Don’t just consider yourself. Consider the unbelievers among you and how your actions affect them.”

How were the Corinthians thinking?

This is a guess, but it seems that they thought it actually had a positive effect on unbelievers, possibly because of what happened on Pentecost.

But they failed to take into account something very important. There were actually foreigners visiting on Pentecost who could understand what was being said.

In their church services, however, there were unbelievers who had no idea what was being said when the Corinthians spoke in tongues.

Because of this, they were not impressed by the Corinthians speaking in tongues; rather, they were turned off.

So Paul is saying, “You guys are all speaking in tongues during your services, and you seem to think that unbelievers will be impressed by this gift that you have and come to Christ. But think about what the scripture says.”

Through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me. (1 Corinthians 14:21, quoting Isaiah 28:11-12)

The context is that the people of Israel were considering the words of God as babble.

And so God was saying, “Fine, you consider my words babble. I will show you what babble is. You will find yourselves exiled in a land of people whose words to you will truly be babble. And even then you won’t repent.”

Paul then applies this passage in reference to tongues and says, “Don’t you see? Tongues uninterpreted and used in front of unbelievers is indeed meant as a sign for them. (1 Corinthians 14:22)

But it’s not a sign meant to convert them, but to express judgment on them. They rejected words that they could understand, and so God makes all his words babble to them.

The result of this is not that they repent, but that they become even more hardened.”

And so Paul says,

So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? (1 Corinthians 14:23)

Even on Pentecost, you see the unbelieving Jews saying this (Acts 2:13).

Prophecy, on the other hand is a sign for those who believe. (1 Corinthians 14:22)

But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare.

So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!” (1 Corinthians 14:24-25)

Now, full disclosure here: there is no word “would” before “believe” in verse 22. But it does seem to me that it best explains Paul’s meaning here in context.

So what do we take from this?

The Corinthians didn’t rightly understand their gifts and what they were for. As a result, Paul warned that their gifts could have the opposite effect of what they were expecting.

How about you? Do you rightly understand and use your gifts, remembering who and what they are for?

If you use them wrongly, whether it be with wrong motivations or in wrong situations, you may be shocked by the results you reap.

The most important thing, though, is to remember that our gifts are not primarily for our benefit or blessing, but to accomplish God’s purposes and to glorify him.

How are you using your gifts?

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1 Corinthians

Speaking for the strengthening, encouragement, comfort, and instruction of others

1 Corinthians

We’re in territory that I must admit I have little confidence to speak upon.

I suppose I’m in kind of a weird position. I’m not one of those that believe that certain gifts such as tongues have disappeared.

I have, for example, known a Japanese home church in which someone spoke in tongues, and they happened to be speaking Chinese which that person had never studied.

But at that church, there was someone actually there who did speak Chinese who interpreted. And they said it was words that were glorifying God. I’ve heard other similar stories as well.

That said, I don’t speak in tongues myself.

As for prophecy, I don’t believe as some do that it is merely “expository preaching.” When I look at prophecy, it seems to be much more than that.

It was used as Paul describes in verses 3 and 31, for strengthening, encouragement, comfort, and instruction.

Now this may sound like expository preaching because good preaching will do that. But I think the one main difference here is that good expository preaching comes from a careful study of the scripture.

Prophecy, according to Peter, doesn’t seem to be that way. Rather, Peter wrote,

Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21)

And looking at this whole passage in 1 Corinthians 14, I think prophecy is dealt with in that sense of being carried along by the Spirit as they speak, rather than speaking from self-study.

Anyway, this whole passage is talking about the difference between tongues and prophecy.

And Paul says here that the main difference is that when you pray in tongues, it really does no good to anyone except the person who is praying. (It edifies them somehow in the spirit).

The exception to this is if what they are saying is interpreted.

Prophecy, on the other hand, is more useful in itself because it is spoken in the language that everyone knows.

And so while Paul encourages the Corinthians to speak in tongues, he encourages them to be eager for the gift of prophecy even more.

Paul says,

He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified. (1 Corinthians 14:5)

And again,

Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church. (1 Corinthians 14:12)

I could say much more on this topic, and probably will in the next few blogs, but here’s the thing that strikes me the most of all that Paul says.

The words we speak in the church are to be finely tuned instruments. And through those words, we should be strengthening, encouraging, comforting, and instructing others.

Those are the main functions of prophecy. But that should be the goal of all who are Christians.

The gift of prophecy, I believe, augments the ability to do this by attaching special supernatural power to it.

But whether we have the gift or not, those are the kinds of words that should be coming out of our mouths as we talk to the people around us.

How about you? Are your words doing these things? Do your words build up the people around you?

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John John 19 Luke Luke 23 Mark Mark 15 Matthew Matthew 27

That scripture would be fulfilled

The gospels

One thing that becomes crystal clear as we look at these passages is that Christ’s death was no accident. It was no mistake on the part of God. Rather, he had planned it from the beginning of time for our salvation.

The irony was that when the chief priests asked for a sign from Jesus to prove that he was the Messiah, Jesus did give them a sign. They were just too blind and deaf to perceive it.

They demanded he come down from the cross. He pointed them to prophecy.

He couldn’t have been more clear when he cried out,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)

The priests thought he was calling for Elijah. But Jesus was actually pointing them to Psalm 22. Why? If they had only seen, they would have understood that Jesus was fulfilling many of the things that David had written.

He was scorned, despised, mocked, and insulted. In fact, the chief priests themselves used virtually the very words that David prophesied they would say.

He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him. (Psalm 22:8)

He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ (Matthew 27:43)

David also gave a graphic description of suffering on the cross. He said,

All my bones are out of joint. (Psalm 22:14a)

This disjointing of the bones is what often happened to people hanging on a cross.

David then said,

My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. (Psalm 22:14b)

John records that when the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side, water and blood flowed out, which doctors today say is a sign that he had suffered heart failure.

David prophesied Jesus’ great thirst upon the cross, saying,

My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. (Psalm 22:15)

And he prophesied Jesus’ hands and feet being pierced. (Psalm 22:16).

More, a person hanging on a cross could probably see his ribs pressing against his flesh, thus David saying,

I can count all my bones. (Psalm 22:17)

And of course, David prophesied the casting of lots for Jesus’ clothing, saying,

They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. (Psalm 22:18)

All these pointed to Jesus as the Messiah, but the chief priests who knew the scripture, couldn’t see it.

John points to other scriptures, Psalm 34, Psalm 69, and Zechariah 12, all of which point to the cross.

And of course, Isaiah 53 describes even more.

Jesus being pierced for our sin and taking our punishment for us.

Being silent in front of his accusers.

Interceding for those who killed him.

Being originally assigned a grave with the wicked, but instead being buried in a rich man’s tomb.

And of course, being resurrected from the dead.

In short, again, this was no accident. It was planned and purposed by the Father for our salvation from the beginning of time.

So let us never take the cross for granted. Instead let us praise God with hearts full of thanksgiving for the price his Son paid for our salvation.

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Luke Luke 17

Seeing God’s kingdom

Luke

This is probably one of the more difficult passages to interpret.

The Pharisees came to Jesus asking when God’s kingdom would come. I’m not sure what they meant by that, but perhaps they were saying, “Are you the Messiah or not? If you are, prove it!”

But Jesus, as usual, refused to give any signs to prove himself to his critics. Instead, he replied,

The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 17:20-21)

That last part is perhaps better translated, “The kingdom of God is among you.”

It’s hard to believe that he was saying the kingdom of God was actually in the hearts of these men who had rejected Jesus.

What was he saying? I think he was saying, “You guys are so intent on looking for signs of God’s kingdom coming, that you can’t see God’s kingdom when it’s staring you in the face.”

In other words, “The King is here. He’s doing the work of the kingdom right in your very midst. And yet you ask for signs for the coming of the kingdom?”

The Pharisees were blind to what God was doing. The question is, are you?

God is working in the hearts of the people around you. He wants to change their lives. More than that, he wants to use you to effect that change. But are you so wrapped up with your own life that you can’t see it?

Or are you so wrapped up searching through prophecy to determine when Jesus is coming back that you can’t see what he is doing right here and now?

Prophecy is important. But if we focus on it to the point that it blinds us to what God is doing around us, then we’ve lost perspective, and we become ineffective for his kingdom.

How about you? Are you seeing what God’s doing in the lives of those around you?

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Isaiah

The God who knows the futu…our name

Isaiah

There are a number of non-Christian and “Christian” Biblical scholars that have serious doubts about whether Isaiah wrote chapters 40–66.

There are numerous reasons for this. One is that Isaiah wrote about the future as if it had already happened. The second is that Isaiah’s prophesies are remarkably accurate.

One thing to remember as you read about Babylon and Persia and Israel’s exile in the book of Isaiah is that none of this had happened yet.

Babylon was not a world power at this point, and of course, Persia had yet to topple Babylon to take its place.

For that matter, while the northern kingdom of Israel was in captivity, Jerusalem still stood.

If there was any major enemy for the Israelites at that time, it wasn’t the Babylonians or the Persians. Rather it was Assyria.

In fact, when Manasseh was captured, it was Assyria that took him prisoner.

The reason Manasseh was taken to Babylon was probably that the king of Assyria thought Babylon and Israel were joining together to rebel against him. So he decided to deal with both rulers at the same time.

But anyway, many people look at these prophesies Isaiah made and say, “There is no way that Isaiah could have so accurately predicted these things.”

And so they conclude that someone other than Isaiah wrote them, sometime after Cyrus, king of Persia, let the Jews go back to their homeland.

But essentially, that’s a position of unbelief. Ultimately, they’re saying there is no God and no supernatural knowledge or intervention.

That’s not a historical position. It’s a philosophical one.

I’m not going to set out an apologetic for this other than to say that there are other prophesies that are simply impossible to redate, namely the prophesies made concerning Jesus.

We know that those prophesies were written before Jesus was born because the entire Old Testament was translated into Greek at the latest by the 1st century B.C. That’s historical fact that no one can dispute.

And if these prophesies can tell where Jesus was born, the timing of it, his life, the manner of his death, and his resurrection, then I have no problems believing that Isaiah could make all these prophesies about Babylon and Persia before they happened.

The most remarkable thing about this prophesy in Isaiah 44 is that God names the ruler who would allow Jerusalem to be rebuilt. Before Cyrus was even born, God named him and talked about all that he would do.

I believe that it was because Cyrus was so impressed when he read these prophesies, that he immediately allowed Judah to go back to their homeland. (2 Chronicles 36:22–23)

While Chronicles only mentions the prophesies of Jeremiah, it’s very possible that Cyrus had access to these prophesies of Isaiah as well.

But what Cyrus learned, we can also learn from this passage. Not just that God knows the future. But something far more personal:

God, who knew and formed us in the womb (24), loves us and knows our name. He cares for us. And he has a plan for our lives if we’ll only cooperate with him.

As Ephesians says,

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace which he has freely given us in the One he loves. (Ephesians 1:4–6)

Take the time to meditate on Ephesians 1:3–14. As you do, know that God knows not only the future, but your name as well.

He loves you.

So rest in that knowledge. And rest in that hope.