Ephesians: Lecture 27
Speaker Notes
Prophetic Ministry (2)
Ephesians 4:11-13
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
John 4:16-19
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.
The Acts of the Apostles 2:1-18 Biblegateway link
The Acts of the Apostles 5:1-5a
Ananias and Sapphira
5.1 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died.
The Acts of the Apostles 11:27-30
27 During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. 30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.
The Acts of the Apostles 13:1-3
13.1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
The Acts of the Apostles 16:6-10
Paul’s Vision of the Man of Macedonia
6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
The Acts of the Apostles 20:22-24
22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
The Acts of the Apostles 21:8-14
8 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”
12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”
Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians 14 Biblegateway link
David du Plessis (as told to Bob Slosser) A man called Mr. Pentecost quote [Chapter 1 The Warning]:
I was in my Johannesburg office well before seven o’clock that bright, sun-bathed morning in 1936. The mail, as usual, was piled high on my desk. ...
...
I was bent over my desk, fully absorbed in a letter to the mission, when suddenly the door burst open. There was no knock. The door swung wide and there stood Smith Wigglesworth, the British evangelist. I started to smile and speak, but instantly sensed this was no time for cordiality. He was grim-faced, taut, erect to his full five-foot-eight stature. The fiery, rough-hewn Pentecostal evangelist looked like an elder statesman in his immaculate gray suit, well-groomed gray hair and finely-trimmed white mustache. He was nearing seventy at that time. A comparative youngster at thirty-one, I remained silent.
He wore a fierce expression and offered no greeting. Instead, he raised his right hand and pointed the forefinger at me. “Come out here!” his voice boomed. I remember thinking, how can a man of such small size have such a ringing voice?
Without hesitation, I moved out around the desk and walked toward him. “Yes, Brother Wigglesworth.”
He put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me against the wall—not roughly, but certainly firmly—and he held me there. I didn’t know what to expect. I had been around this powerful preacher a lot. In fact, I was at that time his host—he and his party were staying in my home. I did a lot of the interpretation at his meetings, and we were quite close. I had seen the Lord use him so dramatically in preaching and healing that I could hold him in nothing but the highest regard. But I was more than a bit uneasy at that moment.
He looked straight into my eyes. I had no choice but to stare back at him. He began to speak, and I knew he was prophesying.
“I have been sent by the Lord to tell you what He has shown me this morning,” he began. “Through the old-line denominations will come a revival that will eclipse anything we have known throughout history. No such things have happened in times past as will happen when this begins.”
Without breaking stride, he plunged ahead in his rapid-fire manner. “It will eclipse the present-day, twentieth-century Pentecostal revival that already is a marvel to the world, with its strong opposition from the established church. But this same blessing will become acceptable to the churches and they will go on with this message and this experience beyond what the Pentecostals have achieved. You will live to see this work grow to such dimensions that the Pentecostal movement itself will be a light thing in comparison with what God will do through the old churches. There will be tremendous gatherings of people, unlike anything we’ve seen, and great leaders will change their attitude and accept not only the message but also the blessing.”
He paused ever so slightly, and his eyes burned into mine. “Then the Lord said to me that I am to give you warning that He is going to use you in this movement. You will have a very prominent part.”
Again, a slight hesitation. “One final word, the last word the Lord gave me for you: All He requires of you is that you be humble and faithful under all circumstances. If you remain humble and faithful, you will live to see the whole fulfilled.”
For the first time in five minutes, his eyes left mine, and he bowed his head. “Lord, I have delivered the message of what you are planning to do with this young man, and now, Lord, bless him and get him ready; keep him in good health so that all this will come to pass. Amen.”
Without another word, he lifted his hands from my shoulders, turned and walked directly out the door, shutting it quietly behind him.
I stood against the wall for several moments, stunned by the whole scene and especially the words. I thought of running after the evangelist, but decided against it. I’d had enough for a while. “He sure has his own ways of doing things,” I mused.
I went back to my desk and sat down. “Lord, I don’t understand this at all.” I knew something had happened to me. “Lord, it’s all very puzzling, very confusing. I didn’t expect this, but give me grace to be faithful. Help me to remember; help me not to fail.”
It was deeply troubling. Wigglesworth’s message was a jolt, completely contrary to what we Pentecostals were teaching and believing. We were praying for God to do something, but this wasn’t it. We were preaching and teaching the full gospel—the baptism in the Holy Spirit, Pentecost—but our message was “come ye out from among them and join us.” We were totally convinced that the Pentecostal teaching was the last wave before the return of Christ and that God had no further use for the main line denominational churches. They had missed the boat completely and were virtually apostate. They had ostracized the Pentecostals, criticizing and ridiculing at every turn. How could God possibly have anything more to do with them—the Dutch Reformed, the Anglicans, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Catholics, all of them?
Without warning there was a gentle knock at the door. About ten minutes had passed. “Come in.”
It was Wigglesworth. He walked in as though for the first time, smiling and friendly. “Good morning, Brother David, and how are you this morning?”
“Oh,” I said, “about now, very puzzled.”
“And why is that?” he asked, with pure innocence.
“Well now,” I said, “you come into this office, and you stand me against the wall, and you prophesy, and now you come back in and you act as if you’d never seen me before, and you want to know why I’m puzzled?”
“Well,” he said, “the Lord said to his prophets, ‘speak to no man on the way,’ and I didn’t speak to anybody. I didn’t say anything to your wife when I arose this morning. I didn’t say anything to anybody I met. I didn’t say anything to you. I delivered the message. Now we can talk about it.”
Dumbfounded, I just looked at him.
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