Festival of Pentecost
June 12, 2011
Why Prophesy?
Joel 2:28-29 and Acts 2:17
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dear friends,
Pentecost was a harvest festival. (Since the Holy Land's climate has two seasons, instead of four, they gather many of their crops in our late spring.) The Jews call it Succoth, which means Booths, like little tents or lean-tos. Seven weeks after Passover, the Jews would again return to Jerusalem to camp out in these little booths (a remind of the forty years in the wilderness) and thank God for the crops they had harvested. But New Testament believers in North America aren't as focused on harvest festivals like in olden times. Thanksgiving is sort-of our harvest festival. But Old Testament Pentecost and New Testament Pentecost have one thing in common: prophecy... and I don't mean telling the future.
Recently Harold Camping, a false prophet, predicted that on a Saturday (May 21, 2011) several weeks ago all true Christians would disappear from the earth and would be taken on up into heaven. Leaving aside that only God knows when the Last Day will dawn (Matthew 24), no one should have followed Mr. Camping because he has never prophesied anything true. He had previously predicted judgment days on May 21, 1988, and September 7, 1994.
Now the test for any prophet is the truth. Now some false prophets are more clever than others and make predictions about the future that are so far away that there is no way to see if they come true. But once in a while, guys like Mr. Camping remind us of the words the Holy Spirit inspired Moses to write:
Deuteronomy 18:21-22 (NIV 1984)
21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
But what about May 20, 1988? Should anyone have been afraid of Mr. Camping and taken him seriously the day before his first prediction (presumably) about the end of the world? The answer is no.
Here's why: Prophesy is about truth, past, present, and future. Good prophesy doesn't just mean telling the future and getting it right. It also means speaking the truth about the past and the present. Therefore you can spot a false prophet not just based on what he says about the future, but what he says about the past and the present. In other words, you can tell a false prophet based on what he says about the Bible. Does he speak the truth?
Mr. Camping doesn't. He denies we are born as enemies of God. He says that we aren't spiritually dead due to our sinfulness. He—and he's hardly alone in this false opinion—boldly rejects what the Holy Spirit tells us:
Romans 8:6-8 (NIV 1984)
6 The mind of sinful man is death... 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
Mr. Camping essentially uses an eraser to the word “not” and changes Words that do not belong to him, so that it reads, “The sinful man can submit to God's law.” This profound lie that Mr. Camping prophesies is just as soul-crushing as the pope's prophecy that we are rescued by both faith and deeds. Indeed it is the same false prophecy. They both appeal to the Law for certainty of rescue, and thus guarantee that they shall never have certainty.
But we do. We are certain of our rescue, even in the face of all our repeated sins that simply prove how hostile to God we still are. We join with Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to prophesy the truth:
Romans 7:18-19 (NIV 1984)
18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
But in spite of this, we are certain that we stand rescued both right now and for eternity. How is this true? Because of the work of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The Father sent, the Son died, and the Spirit prophesies.
About six months ago, our prophecy, that is, our worship and preaching, in church focused on the Father who loved the world and sent His only-begotten Son into the world. Your rescue is certain because the Father loves you.
Then you followed Jesus to the cross where He became the sin of every human being ever conceived and took the world's place on the cross. On Good Friday He paid the ransom price for all. He paid it by dying. Your rescue is certain because He paid the ransom price for you.
On the first Pentecost, the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, tongues of fire danced on their heads, and they were able to speak in many known languages. But after the crowd assembled, what did they hear? “The end of the world is near!” No! They heard prophecy about the past.
Acts 2:22-24 (NIV 1984)
22 “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
Peter and the disciples prophesied about Jesus, which is to say that they told the truth about Jesus. Today, on this anniversary of Pentecost, your rescue is certain because Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to bring Himself to you in Word and in Sacrament.
When Joel predicted the future of the Church, he said this about God and His people:
Joel 2:28-29,32 (NIV 1984)
28 “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days...
32 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
As God's children, baptized by the Holy Spirit, believers prophesied by telling the truth about Jesus the Rescuer, whom the Father had sent. We are told that Stephen (Acts 7), Paul (Acts 9), and Peter (Acts 10) saw visions. Paul dreamed dreams (Acts 16, 18, & 23).
In the Old Testament God's people camped out during Pentecost, went to church, and listened to prophecy. We do the same and listen to the same prophecy, which has now been accomplished, and we too remember that our fine homes are simply booths, lean-tos, temporary tents in which we live while we wait for the promised land.
And while we wait, we prophesy. We speak the truth about Jesus until He returns.
Amen.
