Acts 17: A Prophetic People

What does it mean to be a prophetic people?

For many people, prophecy is the process by which we discover things we could not ordinarily know, particularly about the future. But is that the sum total of the role of the prophet? In the Old Testament Moses is considered the first of the prophets. He spoke about God’s purpose to raise up a prophet like himself in the future, but the primary role Moses fulfilled was to call the people to wholehearted commitment in keeping the covenant.

If you were to trace out the prophetic patterns of the Old Testament you would come to the simple conclusion that God raised up the prophets to call the people to a life of obedience without compromise. From Moses to Malachi, from Habbakuk to Haggai, from Amos to Zephaniah, they all spoke of the need for 100% commitment to the cause of God.

And if, as we believe it to be true, Jesus is the fulfilment of the words of Moses, then he too follows this same line, calling the people back into a deep and fully devoted life of discipleship within the kingdom and purposes of God.

For the church to be considered a prophetic people therefore it must exhibit such a commitment as we follow the pattern of Jesus himself. There is no room for anything less. As Bill Hybels puts it:

Christ and the cause of Christ is the only thing worthy of our full devotion

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Paul tells the Ephesians: We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do the works he prepared in advance for us to do.

What will this commitment look like?

Exhibit a growing Christlikeness

Through the process of transformation and sanctification. We are, to use Paul’s language in Romans 8, to be conformed to the likeness of his Son

Alongside obedience without compromise, a prophetic people will also:

Share a common vision that brings clarity about God’s mission and plan.

Be a people committed to engaging with God’s truth through the careful study and application of the Bible

Carry a common burden as together we share God's heart for the lost and missing, for justice and integrity.

The church therefore becomes a prophetic people when it heralds the good news of Jesus Christ, when it challenges the society around it with God’s word and when it reveals the nature and character of God through the lifestyle and testimony of its people.

Acts 17

In Acts 17, as Paul wanders through the ancient city, he expresses the prophetic nature of the church in a number of ways.

#1 Distress over the state of the world

He doesn’t judge the people around him for the worship in which they indulge or the lifestyle choices they make. Rather he’s moved emotionally and spiritually over their lostness.

#2 Engages the culture in meaningful ways

Paul begins with where the people are on their spiritual journeys. In the synagogues, in the market place and at the debating forum. As Paul begins his famous speech at the areopagus, he doesn’t tell the people how wrong they are, he tells them that they are going in the right direction and he’s going to tell them how to get there! He even quotes their own poets to them.

#3 Reveals the truth

He tells them they carry the mark of God as his offspring. And he points out God’s demands for all people: repentance. Ignorance is no longer a defence. God has revealed his truth and we must choose our response to it.

All this he does in this wonderful cultural context whereby he invites his listeners to take the next logical step in their spiritual journey. It's almost as if he is saying, “You've come this far, why wouldn’t you step into God’s full truth?”

This is a far cry from some of the outreach the church has done in it’s history.

Conclusion

God has called us to be a prophetic people. A people transformed by his good news and conformed to his image. A people who will take this good news and declare it in every place possible. In market places, in religious places and even in the highest places.

To be a prophetic people means we will serve him wholeheartedly, declare his message persistently and life a life worthy of all this consistently.

Authentic Church

Last weekend I was at Biggleswade Baptist Church. I shared with them some of what I want to share this morning. This is where I began.

I love the local church. I have a passion to see the local church become the church that Jesus intends to build. I believe that the fundamental shape of that church is missional, that it’s focus is not internal, meeting the needs of the gathered faithful, but external, influencing the world through sharing kingdom life.

I would not argue with those who quote the creed and say that the chief end of man is to worship God, but I would dispute that as a definition of the church. That, it seems to me, is where we have gone wrong. We have turned the missionary movement that we were meant to be into a gathered community of like-minded people who share their sense of collective disappointment that the rest of the world doesn’t realise how wrong it is.

I believe that the church must change.

Defining the task

We have our mission and purpose set out like this:

Our mission is to know God and to make God known

Our purpose is to love people into a deep and growing relationship with God through Jesus Christ

Together these two things help us understand the simple call and purpose of being the church. It is a call to live out our faith in relationship with God and as partners with him in his mission to the world. That mission is redemptive (restoring the broken relationship between humanity and God through the cross of Christ) and it’s active (God came looking, Jesus said, “Go!”) The activity of God in the world was made clear through his covenant with Abraham when he declared that he would bless Abraham in order that Abraham’s descendants would be a blessing to others.

Time and time again this principle of the people of God being a blessing to the world beyond the confines of the people of God is seen in the Old Testament story. Jonah is sent to Nineveh, Daniel serves in Babylon. Fast forward into the New Testament and although the Gospels make it clear that Jesus focussed his ministry on the Jewish people, he consistently blessed those beyond the nation of Israel. The Roman Centurion’s servant, the Syro-Phonecian woman’s daughter, and a Samaritan woman of questionable moral standards.

This is the kind of church I believe Jesus wants to build. A church made up of people who will partner with him on his mission to bless the world and share the message of his redemptive love and sacrifice.

Reshaping the church: Romans 12

In it’s context Romans 12 reflects the call on the church to be a worshipping, prophetic, caring, serving missionary people. All of this is based upon Paul’s earlier arguments that the world is broken and God has broken into this broken world with a plan to redeem it. It’s not a repair plan or a patch plan, it’s a radical reshaping and renewing plan.

 
In chapter 1 we’re told about the gospel, the power of God to save those who believe the core message.

In chapter 3 we are reminded that everyone has fallen short of God’s standard through the selfish rebellion that we call sin.

In chapter 4 Paul points to the example of Abraham whose faith in God was what mattered most. Not his position as the father of the nation of Israel but his attitude of faith that brought about the reward of God’s blessing.

In chapter 5 we’re reminded that God solved our problem while we were unaware of either the problem or the solution. Even as we rebelled against him, he poured out his love for us through his son Jesus Christ.

In chapter 6 we’re reminded that end product of our rebellion is death but the end product of God’s mission is life.

In chapter 7 Paul exposes the state we are in as he describes life caught between two worlds, the world of wanting to do the right thing and he world of doing the wrong thing.

In Chapter 8 he celebrates the release that comes through knowing God as he declares that there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

In chapters 9-11 Paul talks about his passionate concern for Israel and his hope for its future.
And that all brings us to chapter 12 and Paul’s Therefore, brothers and sister I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, to present yourselves as living sacrifices.

In other words, based upon his argument so far, Paul challenges us to become a people who worship God exclusively, serve him unconditionally and partner with him wholeheartedly.

The Acts 2 framework

Acts chapter 2 presents us with a simple pattern for building a church that is totally committed to worshipping and serving God. It is characterised by four things (thanks to Willow Creek!):

Helping people far from God find faith

Growing mature, fully devoted followers of Jesus

Developing a Biblical community

Carrying a servant towel

Conclusion

There is only one question we must ask ourselves:

Are we willing to step up to the challenge of building this kind of church? Of partnering with God as he builds a church that bears his image and follows his pattern?

We will need to ask ourselves more questions as we go along. Questions like:

What kind of followers of Jesus Christ does God want to produce in this church?

What kind of experiences will we need to have in order to become those kinds of followers?

What kind of leaders will we need to help us become those kinds of followers?

A place to start is with an honest assessment of where we are as individual followers of Jesus.
This is not a pass or fail examination. This is an opportunity to look at where we are going and think about what we are going to do in order to get there.