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New Testament Prophets
Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, “Get up, and do not be afraid.” And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.
Why did God have Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus? One reason is that it expressed a prophetic picture. Moses represented the Law and Elijah represented the Old Testament prophets. And these two men representing the Law and the prophets met with Jesus and then disappeared leaving Jesus standing alone. The message? Their work in pointing forward to the coming of Christ was done. Now their lives, ministries, and prophetic words were to be seen as fulfilled in Him. Jesus would now be the focal point for interpreting all of scripture. Today we no longer build tabernacles or sacred tents to honor men. We have one Man, one Head of the Church, even Jesus Christ. Since the emphasis of the Bible is now all about the fulfillment of what was prophesied in the Old Testament – the coming of the Messiah and the establishing of his Kingdom on earth, the main work that we must be presently engaged in is quite simple – we must believe in Him.
Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
(John 6:29).
The focus of the New Testament is that we believe in Christ, in His present work of bringing God’s kingdom on earth. It is not coming in a way readily apparent to people (Luke 17:20), rather, it is coming in a hidden way, like leaven (Matthew 13:33). And if people are not born of the Spirit, they cannot even see it (John 3:3). So, the instruction of scripture is clear – we must believe!
One mark of failing to believe in Him is when we try to make His kingdom come, to make it happen. For some, the key to seeing kingdom growth is to go to the latest church growth seminar or to find the latest good ideas in a Christian publication on how to revolutionize their city for God. But God is saying, “Pray for My kingdom to come and then receive it as it comes.” And the key to it all is to hear Him. God’s strategy is now available to everyone of us, even if we are in groups as small as two or three gathered in His name. When we come together, we can hear and respond to His leading to share from our hearts what He is revealing to us. We can read from scripture what the Holy Spirit is emphasizing. But it is all about hearing Him! Here is God’s kingdom emphasis – hear Him. Why? Because His presence is now available to us all. It is not about some special man or woman. Jesus said that if you are the least in the Kingdom then you are greater than all the prophets of the Old Testament. Why would we ever want to change what He has purchased for us or go back into what predated it?
And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
Until Jesus died on the cross, heaven was closed. When you died, you went to the Netherworld, the place of departed spirits. In the Old Testament it was called Sheol. We know from the story of Lazarus and the rich man that there was a great chasm fixed between the righteous and the wicked (Luke 16:19 - 31). On one side of this void was Abraham’s bosom and on the other side was Hades. When the righteous died, they went to Abraham’s bosom; the wicked went to Hades. But when Jesus died, He descended into the place of the departed spirits and made proclamation of what He had just done (1Peter 3:19). Then when He ascended back to heaven, “HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES” (Ephesians 4:8).
He was leading the way for the righteous into the very presence of God in heaven. In fact, when He died on the cross, the tombs of many righteous ones were opened and after His resurrection, they appeared on the streets of Jerusalem. (Matthew 27:52 - 53). Someone might have been walking in the city and suddenly saw a familiar face. “Wait, you look like Uncle Leroy!” And the person might have said, “I am Uncle Leroy!” AAAAAAhhhhh! But the Good News is that heaven was now accessible and open in a way it never was before.
It is true that not all believers are called to be prophets but all are to be prophetic. All may not be evangelists but all are to be evangelistic. All may not be teachers but all are called to teach. We may not all be apostles but we are all called to be apostolic. When Jesus sent out the twelve apostles to proclaim the Kingdom of God, they came back and gave an account of what they had done (Luke 9:1 - 6, 10). But then soon afterward, He sent out seventy more of those who followed Him (Luke 10:1 - 16). Did that mean that now there were eighty-two apostles? No. In the first group He was equipping and training apostles; in the second, He was equipping followers to be apostolic. God’s vision is for the whole Church of Christ to become an apostolic people.
The five ministries listed in Ephesians 4:11 are not positions or offices for some leaders to hold in God’s Church. Rather, they are descriptions of leaders to whom God has simply given some measure of His grace. As they each learn to function in the grace that He has given to them, God will through them equip His people for the work of serving others resulting in Christ’s body being edified/built up. The work of serving reveals Christ. Many folks have missed the fact that the King of the universe is a foot washer. He did not come to be served, but to serve and we are all to be equipped to do the same (John 13:12 - 17; Matthew 20:25 - 28).
Peter writes about his experience on the Mount of Transfiguration:
For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased” – and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.
I don’t think Peter fully understood what was happening when he was on that mountain. After he made the suggestion about setting up a few tents, God responded with the words, “Hear Him!” I can imagine Peter thinking, “Well I do. I hear Him every day.” But the words from heaven continued to echo in his heart. “Hear Him!” Later, he realized that God had been speaking sovereignly from heaven not just to him but through him to all who would listen. The truth is that we all need God instructing and equipping us to “hear Him.” For Peter, the day dawned and the morning star arose in his heart (the lights went on in him/it clicked) and from that point on, his whole focus in life was to hear Him.
Some years ago, I was mentoring a young man who was conducting a Bible study in our city with some other men. One day when we got together, it was clear that he was frustrated with the brethren in the study group. “Why don’t they get it? All these truths that God has shown you and I that are central to our lives. I try to share these with them and they look at me like I have three eyes!” I asked, “Well, how did you come to understand these truths?” His response was, “What?” “How did it happen for you?” I repeated. His response was, “God showed it to me.” So, I replied, “Are you God now? Can you give revelation? Before you meet with those folks do you pray and ask for a spirit of wisdom and revelation to come upon that meeting? Think of what Paul was doing when he wrote the book of Ephesians. He said,
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.”
(Ephesians 1:17 HCSB)
Think of it. Even when a man was writing the inerrant word of God, more was needed. The Ephesians needed the Spirit of God to come upon them as they read what Paul wrote! God was needed in both the writing and then the reading of His word.
From that point on, this young man would pray regularly for revelation to come to those in the study group. And when he shared the truths that God had revealed to him, some of them began to see with increased clarity. Clearly, we all need God to open up His word to us so that we can see Him in it. Genuine kingdom insight comes by revelation, and revelation comes by His mercy. And if that is true, why would we ever act like we are better than others who do not see what we do? As if our insight is our own personal possession that we somehow earned! All of us need to start praying that God would give us wisdom and revelation. Revelation simply means that we begin to see truth that we would never have perceived if God had not shown us. And then wisdom is what God gives us so that we can know what to do with what we now see.
It was so encouraging to me when this dear brother stepped up into a new place of insight and was able to help equip those in his study group in seeing the Lord. In other words, the day dawned in his heart, the morning star arose, it clicked for him just like it had for Peter.
Paul experienced the same process. Referring to the gospel that he preached, he said:
For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
I don’t mean to be hard on these men and women who say that they are prophets or prophetesses and yet define it all by the Old Testament. What they are saying is probably based on what they have been taught. But something needs to click in their hearts. When that happens, they will go about their ministries differently. If we are to consider just what a New Testament prophet looks like, let us center our answers in the New Testament.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
The foundation of the house that God is building to reveal His glory is laid by His apostles and prophets. Exactly who or what is the foundation? Is it a set of doctrinal principles? Paul was clear.
For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
The person of Jesus Christ is that foundation. The Scriptures say that God has already established Him as the precious Stone upon which He is building (Isaiah 28:16). But since Calvary, God has been releasing His grace through His apostles and prophets to reveal that reality – not just to talk about it but to make it manifest. Their unique calling is to bear Christ’s presence into situations in such a way that His people seek to gather to and around Him as the center of both their individual lives and then also their corporate lives. This means that organizational approaches to building God’s house must cease. His people must move forward in only one way; we must hear Him. Strong singular leaders of churches and streams of churches must make way for Christ to be central in the leadership role. Only He can be the head. Only He can be the Chief Shepherd.
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.
The Body of Christ will grow if overseers will release their grip. They must oversee/watch over God’s people, not control them. Of course, such an approach means that if the people have the liberty to speak, then the leaders must have the liberty to bring correction when necessary. Proper oversight will lead not to spiritual anarchy but to Christ being revealed in His people, rather than just in a few leaders. And so, our job is to equip and teach believers how to serve like Jesus did. Some leaders have taken the five–fold ministries (apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher) and made them into official positions in the Church. The words apostle or prophet etc. then become titles expressing their authority. But they are not official positions to be held; they are equipping functions empowered by the grace of God. Jesus gave these gifts to His corporate body when He ascended back to heaven. And He did so to prepare us so that the whole Church can come forth in active service. When this process happens, everybody plays a part because we are all to be prophetic/apostolic/pastoral etc. These ministries simply teach us how to connect relationally with the foundation of God’s house, with the living person of Jesus Christ, and then to serve like He served in whatever capacity He has called each of us.
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