Tonight I want to ask the question: How can Luke say that something was done “through the Spirit” and yet it be wrong? That is what we find in Acts 21. In 20:22-23, Paul says, “And now, behold, bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.”
So Paul has been instructed by the Spirit that he is to go to Jerusalem and that there will be much suffering while he is there. However, in chapter 21 we read that as Paul and his companions are traveling that they run into some disciples who keep “telling Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem” (21:4).
Now we wouldn’t have a problem with this except that the Spirit had already instructed Paul to go to Jerusalem, and so these men must be wrong. And we wouldn’t have a problem with that except that Luke says that they kept telling Paul, “Through the Spirit.” So how do these things work together? And how can we label what is going on with these disciples?
I think there is at least one clue that what they are doing should be called prophecy. In chapter 11 we read that while Peter was ministering in Antioch that “some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and began to indicate through the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world” (11:27-28). Therefore, this prophet was prophesying and Luke can describe it as him indicating “through the Spirit.” That is the same phrase Luke uses to describe these disciples in 21:4 (see note 1). Therefore, it appears (assuming Luke is using his terminology consistently) that we could call the work of these disciples in 21:4 prophecy.
But if you are like many, you cannot call this prophecy because prophecy can never be wrong, its words are authoritative, and the prophet is risking his life to even express something, for it could cost him his life. Such is the case with the prophets like Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos, etc. Look to Deuteronomy 18:18-20.
The Scripture reads, “I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And it shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. But the prophet who shall speak a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he shall speak in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.”
So it is clear that there is a type of prophecy like that of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos, etc. that was the very words of God, was never wrong, were authoritative in nature (those who heard had to obey), and where the person was tested and if wrong killed.
So the question we must then ask is “Is there another category of prophecy than the Deuteronomy 18 version, authoritative, very word of God prophecy?” I believe that there is Scriptural evidence that there is. For example, in Numbers 11, we read, “So Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD. Also, he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and stationed them around the tent. Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took of the Spirit who was upon him and placed Him upon the seventy elders. And it came about that when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do it again. But two men had remained in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them … and they prophesied in the camp. So a young man ran and told Moses and said, ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.’ Then Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, answered and said, ‘Moses, my lord, restrain them.’ But Moses said to him, ‘Are you jealous for my sake? [I] would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!’” (Numbers 11:24-29).
Now it is odd for me to think that these seventy men were prophesying in the sense that Jeremiah and Isaiah prophesied. It is hard for me to think that they were speaking the authoritative words of God that everyone around them had to obey or be held accountable. I also find it hard to believe that Moses was longing for a day when all of God’s people would speak authoritative words from Him. It just doesn’t make sense.
The same is true in Acts 2. On the day of Pentecost, as the Spirit rushes in and fills the believers, they begin to speak in other languages of the mighty deeds of God. However, when Peter is interpreting what has just been inaugurated (the “last days”), he can say that it is a fulfillment of the prophet Joel who said, “‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy … even upon My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit and they shall prophesy” (Acts 2:17-18).
Again, it is hard to imagine that Joel and Peter envisioned in the last days (the days between Pentecost and the return of Christ) that sons and daughters, bondslaves, both men and women would be speaking the authoritative words of God.
And finally, when Paul tells the Corinthians that when they gather in the church that they should “prophesy one by one” (1 Corinthians 14:31), I cannot think that he is talking about the kind of prophecy described in Deuteronomy 18.
Therefore, I do think there is another category of prophecy than that which is mentioned in Deuteronomy 18. It can be prompted by the Spirit, but wrong when it is interpreted and delivered; it is not authoritative in nature and is to be tested. For that is what we see happening in Acts 21. The Spirit somehow prompted that which led them to conclude that Paul shouldn’t go to Jerusalem, but they were wrong in their interpretation, Paul disobeyed, and he obviously tested what they said.
This category of prophecy is no doubt what Paul is referring to when he tells the Thessalonian believers, “Do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:20-22). Notice that the individual is no longer being tested (as is the case with Deuteronomy 18) but what is being said is tested. And what is said does not have to be one hundred percent accurate (again, as with Deuteronomy 18), but one is to take what is good and ignore what is wrong.
Therefore, what I believe happened in Acts 21 is that these men receive a vision (or something to that effect) from the Spirit of what was going to happen to Paul is Jerusalem. The Spirit gave them this, and that is why Luke can say “through the Spirit.” However, when they perceived what was given by the Spirit, they misinterpreted what this should mean for Paul and concluded that it meant that he should not go to Jerusalem.
They probably saw the same thing that Agabus saw (through the Spirit), namely, Paul bound and afflicted. And their conclusion was that Paul should not go to Jerusalem. This would seem to be a good conclusion when you love someone and are told of danger that awaits him or her. However, what they failed to factor into their perception was that the gospel is spread through the affliction of the saints (Colossians 1:24). Therefore, the Spirit was showing them these things not so that Paul might be stopped from going to Jerusalem but so that Paul might know comfort in the midst of the suffering that he is going to know.
This is not the story of men who do not love God or their brother but a story of men who misinterpreted a vision (or something to that effect) because they loved their brother deeply. That is what Paul understands, for he does not criticize them but instead says, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (21:13). He knows their exhortation comes from love that is blocking them from seeing the need for Paul to “fill up” the afflictions of Christ (Colossians 1:24).
This is not like Deuteronomy 18 where these men should be killed, but these men should be loved and encouraged.
Therefore, what are we to do in light of this? We are to obey the command of 1 Corinthians 14:1 as Paul writes, “Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.” We are to earnestly desire the gift of prophecy that we might encourage and exhort our brothers and sisters. For that is why the gift is given. God was encouraging and comforting Paul in his coming suffering through the prophecy (misinterpreted though it may be) of his brothers.
I pray that we will come to a day as a church when we love each other enough that we will earnestly desire prophecy that we might minister to someone in need. And I pray that this teaching will provide us the foundation to look at someone who is utterly wrong in their interpretation and say, “Thank you for loving me enough to labor before our Lord that you might minister to me.” For there is something far greater than misinterpreting prophecy; it is not caring enough to love your neighbor as yourself. Amen.
As we looked at another category of prophecy last week, saw that the Spirit can prompt something that we can misinterpret, and that we should pursue it out of love, I want to change gears just a bit this week and look at some guidelines, questions, and cautions concerning the gift of prophecy. And in doing so, I want us to continue to remember the text of Acts 21, but I also want us to look to 1 Corinthians 14:37-40.
I want to do this because I fear that last week we walked out of here all excited about desiring earnestly the gift of prophecy, and that is good. However, I don’t want us to get all excited at the expense of losing our biblical bearings. Therefore, I simply want to clear up a few things and make a few points.
Prophecy is always subject to the Word of God
Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 14:37-38, writing, “If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment. But if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.”
Therefore, it is quite apparent that any and all prophecy is subject to the Word of God. Paul wouldn’t even let someone in the church be recognized if they did not agree and submit to the authority of the Scripture delivered through the apostles.
Therefore, no matter what you hear from someone or how godly the individual is, you must disregard their remarks if it contradicts Scripture (see note 2). Remember, in 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, Paul encouraged us to test the thing said, but you are never encouraged to test Scripture—just someone’s interpretation of it.
But then, we might ask, “If prophecy can be wrong and holds no authority in our lives, then what good is it?” That is to say, even if the Spirit prompts something (as He did in Acts 21:4) we can still get it wrong, then why mess around with prophecy?
There are a couple of reasons. The first is that it is commanded. Paul commands the Corinthian church throughout this fourteenth chapter to earnestly desire prophecy. Therefore, no matter how risky we think something is, it is always taking a greater risk to directly disobey plain commands in Scripture.
A second reason that we should desire prophecy, even though it can be interpreted and delivered incorrectly is that it provides edification for the body of Christ. Paul says in 14:3, “But one who prophesies speaks to me for edification and exhortation and consolation” and again in 14:31, “For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and be exhorted.” There is exhortation and edification in prophecy.
I can give a personal example of this. The summer of my sixteenth birthday is when I finally told God that I would be obedient and follow his call in my life to go into full-time ministry. The night that I broke was a Wednesday in the later part of May. It was hot. I was outside, praying on my deck, when I finally said, “Okay, I’ll do it.”
It was a scary time. I had not even turned sixteen yet. I didn’t have any peers who were being called to the same work. I didn’t know what to do next, and I didn’t know if I had heard God correctly. Therefore, I decided to simply tell my parents and wait to tell the church until God confirmed it (again and again).
The next morning was “prayer time” at my high school. A number of students would gather in the choir room before the start of school and pray. My choir teacher, Donna Green, was the leader for this time. She was a godly woman.
On this occasion, I was running late. I had to ride with a couple of friends, and so we walked in after the group had already begun sharing prayer requests. However, when we walked in, Ms. Green said, “Hello” and told me that she wanted to see me after prayer time was over and before classes began. I agreed.
After prayer time, we met in her office, and she began to inform me of some incredible happenings. She said that that morning God had given her a word for someone. However, she said that God had not told her with whom she was supposed to share it. She felt confident, though, that God would show her. She then shared with me that when I walked in, God put a light about me so that she knew I was the one with whom she was supposed to share this word.
Of course, at this point I was anxious to hear what she had to say. She said that she felt that she was supposed to tell me that what I thought God was calling me to do was right and that he was pleased with my obedience. Then she said, “So, what’s going on in your life?” It was at this point that I realized that she had no idea of the decision that I had made the night before. So as I shared with her my struggle and eventual surrender the night before while praying on my deck, we both began to cry. We were both encouraged.
Even as I write this, I cannot believe the goodness of God to one who has doubted his faithfulness on so many occasions and despised his name. I feel so loved to have been encouraged and edified in that difficult time. And there are occasions now when I think to that time in hardships. God was and is so good!
Now, yes, she could have been wrong. That’s what I have been encouraging us to see. We need to test these things and they could be wrong. But I thank God that he used Ms. Green. She wasn’t wrong. And even if she had of been, I would have still been blessed because she had actually cared enough to try to hear God and encourage me.
So, why should we desire earnestly this gift? In a word, we should do it for edification. I cannot put a price on that edification, and that is only one of a number of similar incidents in my life where God encouraged, edified, and exhorted me through this gift in the life of one of his children.
Yes, it can be with error (as we misinterpret God’s voice), but cannot the same be said of teaching? I open the Bible twice a week and risk misinterpreting something that is completely true. So why don’t we get rid of teaching because of the risk that I might be wrong?
The answer is, of course, that God has given teachers to the Church to instruct, train, rebuke, exhort, etc., and because it is so beneficial, it is worth the risks of misinterpretation now and then. And besides, aren’t we to weigh teaching anyway, accepting the good and disregarding the bad? The same is true of prophecy.
This edification that I have been talking about is what I think Paul received through these disciples in Acts 21:4. Even though they misinterpreted what the Spirit was showing them, thinking it meant that Paul wasn’t to go to Jerusalem, they were confirming to Paul that affliction awaited him there. And one of the most comforting things in times of affliction is the knowledge that God is right in the midst of it.
Therefore, when Paul was in the middle of suffering in Jerusalem, he wasn’t tempted to think, “Where is God? Does he know what’s going on with me as I seek his glory in my life?” No, rather he knew that this experience was passing right through his hands, for God had assured him of that three times before he even arrived in Jerusalem (Acts 20:22-23, 21:4, and 21:10-11).
Paul would know in Jerusalem that God was not absent. That is the comfort that Charles Spurgeon wrote of in his life as he suffered from depression, criticism, gout, and a number of other things. He found his comfort in the fact that God was in the midst of all of it. He wrote, “It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by his hand, that my trials were never measured out by him, nor sent to me by his arrangement of their weight and quantity” (see note 3).
I believe that this was the comfort that the Spirit was seeking to give Paul in Acts 20 and 21.
Prophecy is to be given properly and orderly
Now, I admit that I am trying to show you all of the advantages of prophecy despite the risks, but now let me give you to guidelines or warnings. First of all, prophecy is to be given properly and orderly. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14:39-40, “Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophecy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues. But let all things be done properly and in an orderly manner.”
This means that we must understand the following things:
We are still to do things in an orderly manner, so that means we cannot just burst out in our seat. That can be counterproductive even if you really do have a word from the Spirit.
The elders are still the ones who are responsible for the leading of the flock, not someone who receives a word of prophecy. So the realization of this gift does not mean we know longer submit ourselves to the leaders that God has placed in his church.
Also, the elders have been given a responsibility to guard the flock from wolves with false teaching (Acts 20:28). So we are not just going to open up in our service for anyone who thinks he has a word of prophecy. That would be an invitation for a wolf in sheep’s clothing to put falsehood in the ears of the flock. And the elders are to guard that from happening. Therefore, one way we do it is by encouraging anyone who thinks he needs to share a word to come to the elders.
Receiving a word of prophecy does not always mean that you are supposed to share it. Possibly more often than not you are just supposed to pray. And if you do think you should share it, share it with the individual to whom it relates. Don’t gossip. Too often gossip occurs in the church under the mask of prayerful concern. But gossip is always gossip, and it is wrong. So don’t use your thinking that the Spirit has revealed something to you for an opportunity to sin.
We should always pray before doing anything when we think God has shown us something.
Prophecy is not the normal way that God reveals his will to his children
The second warning is the prophecy is not the normal way God reveals his will to us. I say that because for many of you, this is the first time that you have heard teaching on this, and any time we encounter something new, we are tempted to overemphasize it.
Such will be our temptation with prophecy no doubt. But remember that prophecy is not the normal way that God reveals his will to us. And there is a reason for that. It is that God’s desire for your life is not just external obedience.
Did you catch that? God’s desire for your life is not just external obedience.
If that were the case, then I see no reason why he would not make prophecy his normal means for sharing his will for you. But he desires that we be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). He wants to make us like Christ inside and out.
His desire is not that we (like a little child after a fight with his sibling) say we’re sorry on the outside but feel no sorrow for our sin on the inside. He wants us to be like Christ on the inside and out.
Therefore, the normal way for God sharing his will is by speaking to you in prayer and in his Word as you are before him day after day. For when we sit in his presence, we are changed.
Moses did not simply receive the commandments of God when he spoke to him; he shone the radiance of God on his face. Isaiah did not simply receive his message from God in Isaiah 6; he realized he was a man of unclean lips and wanted to change. And as we are before God and dwell day after day in his presence and glory, we will be changed from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18). And that is what God wants for you. Therefore, that is when he will share his secrets with you.
God wants to build your character and make you faithful. Therefore, prophecy will often be an edifying confirmation of what God told you on your face and over his Word before him. That’s what Donna Green’s word was for me.
Therefore, we should earnestly desire this gift, not that we might be the number one means for God revealing his will to others, but so we might encourage, edify, and be a confirmation for others that they are hearing God.
This is a delightful gift that is often neglected in the church because of abuses and a lack of biblical teaching. But let’s keep our sails open for God’s Spirit to blow and speak to us while being grounded in the depth of the ocean that is the solid truth of the Word of God.
May his grace be with us. Amen.