Osceola Sermon End Times Prophecy Prophecy You Can Believe in: February 27 th, 2011 Pastor Bob Vale

Transcription

1 Osceola Sermon End Times Prophecy Prophecy You Can Believe in: February 27 th, 2011 Pastor Bob Vale Biblical Focus: I Corinthians 13:2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. Today we are going to talk about Biblical Prophecy As a country we love to predict the future! We predict the weather, sports game outcomes, who will be getting married in the next soap drama, the ups and downs of the stock market. We are all about wanting to know what tomorrow holds. Do you know how many fortune tellers there are in America? There is an estimated 12,000 registered fortune tellers living in America today. (I always wonder if the fortune tellers were so good at their craft, why wouldn t they be the richest people on the planet? If they were so good, couldn t they predict the stock market, bet large amounts of money on professional sports, tell us who is going to win the Kentucky Derby and so on.) Worlds Worst Predictions: The book The World's Worst Predictions lists some of history's all-time prophetic goofs. 1. King George II said in 1773 that the American colonies had little stomach for a revolution. 2. An official of the White Star Cruise Line, speaking of the firm's newly built flagship, the Titanic, launched in 1912, declared that the ship was unsinkable. 3. In 1939 The New York Times said the problem of TV was that people had to glue their eyes to a screen, and that the average American wouldn't have time for it. 4. An English astronomy professor said in the early 19th century that air travel at high speed would be impossible because passengers would suffocate. Just listen to the following statistic, which helps us understand the Bible is a very special masterpiece of communication from almighty God to His creation: The Bible was written over a span of 1,500 years. It was written by more than 40 different authors such as Moses, David, Joshua, Daniel, Solomon, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the Apostle Paul. These authors represent all walks of life such as shepherd, fishermen, secretaries, servants, prophets, prime ministers, Kings, Military generals, tax collectors, and even a Jewish rabbi and medical doctor. The Bible was written in all kinds of places such as the wilderness, a dungeon, a prison, and a palace. All of these areas of authorship were accomplished on the three continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe. God used the three languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic and then presented them in various literary styles such as poetry, song, romance, memoirs, satire, biography, law, prophecy, parable and allegory. The Bible is actually a book full of predictions and prophecies. It is a book of the here and now, but also helps us understand what is going to happen to your life, today and in the future. When you think of the word prophecy in the Bible, what does that mean? Before we go any farther we really need to define the word prophecy.

2 When I was in Bible College, our theology professor defined prophecy as the foretelling or proclaiming of God s Word. That is perhaps not a bad definition for today s prophet: i.e. Myself as your pastor. But does that same definition apply to the prophets of the Bible? The noun prophecy describes a prediction of the future, made under divine inspiration or a revelation of God to man. When I mention individuals who were prophets in the Bible, I am talking about Jeremiah, Isaiah, Joel, Nehemiah, Habbakuk, Daniel, as well as the gospel writers, Paul and John in the New Testament. By the way, do you know the difference between a major Old Testament prophet and a minor prophet? It is only in the amount of content in their writing. Jeremiah and Isaiah are considered Major Prophets, because their books in the Bible are larger in volume than the Minor Prophets such as Micah, Joel and Amos. Certainly the prophets of the Bible were proclaiming and foretelling God s word, but was there was also a divine aspect to their message that had relevance for generations thousands of years into the future? There is certainly a different spin and depth to the Old Testament prophets than the preacher / prophets we have today. Although I enjoy the sermons I and the Lord prepare for you, I have a sense that the Lord is speaking through me for the here and now and not so much for the distant future as many of the Old Testament prophets did in their writings. (Although some of the Biblical passages I preach from certainly relate to the distant future.) What Americans Believe about the End Times: A recent Newsweek poll gauges Americans opinions on the Book of Revelation and end times: *36% believe the Book of Revelation contains true prophecy, while 47% say it is metaphorical. *55% think the faithful will be taken up to heaven in the rapture. *74% of Americans believe that Satan exists, vs. 93% of evangelical Christians. How many prophecies are there in the Bible? J. Barton Payne s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy lists 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament and 578 prophecies in the New Testament, for a total of 1,817. These encompass 8,352 verses. What are the odds? Do you know what the odds are of all the many prophecies in the Bible being fulfilled? The odds of all the bible prophecy that has been fulfilled occurring by chance is 1 in 2,000. Your odds of winning the lottery are actually better. When we look at the prophecy books of the Old and New Testament, we need to rightly divide the word of God to find their true meaning as best we can. What I mean by that is when we look at a passage of scripture we need to ask certain questions about the passage before we draw a conclusion to its meaning. Here are some of those questions: What is the original language the author is writing, and what are the nuances, specific and hidden meanings behind the original language being used? (Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic) 1. Who is the author directly speaking to when writing the text? 2. What message is the author trying to explain to the people of that day and time?

3 3. What is the author trying to tell us today, two to three thousand years later? 4. Who is God directly speaking to when the text was written? 5. What is God trying to explain to the people of that day and time? 6. What is God trying o tell us today, two to three thousand years later? 7. What was the historical and cultural setting when the text was written and now does that relate to the people of that time? (Does that same historical and cultural application apply to us today?) 8. Is the text meant to be poetic, historical, literal, prophetic, symbolic or metaphorical? 9. If the scripture relates to prophecy of a future event; one needs to also ask another series of questions. 10. Is the prophecy given, fulfilled within the lifetime of the prophet giving the prophecy? 11. Is the prophecy given, partially fulfilled at the time the author is writing the text and will the prophecy be completely fulfilled at a later date? 12. Is the prophecy given in scripture to be fulfilled much later in time at perhaps the end of the world with Christ will come back? These basic questions need to be asked by a responsible theologian, if he or she is to rightly divide the word of God and draw out the true meaning of the text. It takes a lot of work to walk a scripture through these ten or so steps to draw the meaning out of the Bible text. We call this exegesis or exegeiting a passage of scripture. When we don t ask these important questions when we study the Bible, is when we typically get false doctrines started. This is the weakness of the cults such as Jim Jones in Ghana, Africa, Charles Manson in California, David Koresh in Texas and others who take either a very literal or distorted gloss over view of the scriptures to fit their view of the Bible. So as we look at the scriptures, what prophecies do we look to that are relevant to us and which are not? The answer to that question is as follows: First, all prophecies are relevant, but some are already partially or completely fulfilled. For example: Isaiah and Joel s prophecy of the coming messiah was completely fulfilled with the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to the world. The Old Testament books of the Bible were written between 1450 BC and 430 BC). They contained hundreds of prophecies about an anointed one ( Messiah in Hebrew) who would arrive in their future. Even a casual reader of the Bible will notice something different about Psalm 22 and Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12. They tell stories that perfectly parallel events in the life of Christ that took place much later. Psalm 22 is especially amazing since it predicted 11 separate things about Jesus crucifixion about a thousand years before they happened. We know that David (the author of Psalm 22) lived about BC and Isaiah lived about

4 BC. Both passages, written far ahead of the time of Christ, are strong proof that help you believe that the Bible was literally inspired by God. Old Testament Prophecy: Psalms 22:16-19 Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce [e] my hands and my feet. 17 All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. 18 They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. New Testament Fulfillment: John 19:18 Here they crucified him, and with him two others--one on each side and Jesus in the middle. New Testament Fulillment: Luke 23:34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. Israel would suffer 70 years of Babylonian domination. Bible prophecy: Jeremiah 25:11-12 Prophecy written: Sometime between BC Prophecy fulfilled: About 609 BC to 539 BC Jeremiah 25:11-12: This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 "But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt," declares the LORD, "and will make it desolate forever. In Jeremiah 25:11-12, the prophet said that the Jews would suffer 70 years of Babylonian domination. Jeremiah also said Babylon would be punished after the 70 years. Both parts of this prophecy were fulfilled. In 609 BC, which is about 2600 years ago. Babylon captured and later asserted its dominance by taking many Jews as captives to Babylon, and by destroying Jerusalem and the Temple. The domination ended in 539 BC, when Cyrus, a leader of Persians and Medes, conquered Babylon and brought an end to its empire. Cyrus later offered the captive Jews the freedom to return to their homeland. The Prophet Isaiah foretold the virgin birth of Jesus. Bible prophecy: Isaiah 7:14 Prophecy written: Between BC Prophecy fulfilled: About 5 BC Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem: Bible prophecy: Micah 5:1-2 Prophecy written: Sometime between BC Prophecy fulfilled: About 5 BC In Micah 5:2 But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of

5 Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. Concerning the birth of Jesus Christ: Prophecy Given --- Prophecy Fulfilled 1. Born of the seed of woman- Gen 3:15, 2. Born of a virgin- Isa 7:14, Mt 1: Seed of Abraham- Gen 22:18, Mt 1:1 4. Seed of Isaac- Gen 21:12, Lk 3: Seed of Jacob- Num 24:17, Lk 3:34 6. Seed of David- Jer 23:5, Lk 3:31 7. Tribe of Judah- Gen 49:10, Rev 5:5 8. Family line of Jesse- Isa 11:1, Lk 3:32 9. Born in Bethlehem- Mic 5:2, Mt 2: Herod kills the children- Jer. 31:15, Mt 2: I have just given you ten of the hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament about Christ. Dr. Peter Stoner, Professor Emeritus of Science at Westmont College, wrote a book entitled Science Speaks, (Moody Press, 1969, P.109) in which he wrote about the law of "compound probability" in reference to just 8 of these prophecies about Jesus coming true. He said that the odds of one man accidently fulfilling 8 of these detailed prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17th power. That s 1 with 17 zero s after it. In order for you to understand how incredible that number is in regards to fulfilled prophecy he gave this illustration. Let s imagine you had that many silver dollars. 1 in 10 to the 17th power of them. Those silver dollars would cover the entire land mass of Texas to a depth of 2 feet. (The great state of Texas has 266,853 square miles. By the way, Indiana only has 36,000 square miles.) Now, let s suppose you took one of those silver dollars and marked with a red dot and then dropped it from an airplane. Then, you thoroughly stirred up the entire mass of silver dollars with an earthquake, or better yet, 10,000 Nascar drivers racing across the state on top of the two feet of silver dollars, to mix them up. Next, you blind fold a friend and tell them they can go wherever they want in the state of Texas. But sometime they must stop, reach down in that two feet deep of silver dollars and pick only one. They could walk as long as they wanted. (By the way it takes 6 days if you walked nonstop for a professional hiker to walk across the state of Texas.) Suddenly the hiker would stop with his blindfold on and pick up one silver dollar. The odds of him picking up that one marked silver dollar with the red dot is astronomical. Jesus was betrayed by a friend. Bible prophecy: Psalm 41:9 Prophecy written: About 1000 BC Prophecy fulfilled: About 31 AD

6 Psalm 41:9: Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. In Psalm 41:9, King David wrote a prayer asking for mercy in his last days. In this prayer, which Christians acknowledge as being inspired by God, David wrote about a betrayal at the hand of a close friend with whom he had shared bread. This foreshadowed something that happened years later with Jesus. As explained in Matthew 26:47-50, Jesus was betrayed by Judas, one of the 12 apostles, shortly after Jesus and the apostles had shared bread during the Last Supper. Jesus was crucified by the Romans a short time later. Jesus will return (to judge the living and the dead) Bible prophecy: Matthew 24:29-31 Prophecy written: During the first century Prophecy fulfilled: To be fulfilled Matthew 24:29-31: 29 "Immediately after the distress of those days " 'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.' 30 "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. In Matthew 24:29-31, as well as in other places within the New Testament, Jesus revealed about 2000 years ago that he will return in the future to judge the living and the dead. This is a core Christian belief that is reflected in the Apostles' Creed, which is a summary of Christian beliefs that was written many centuries ago. The Apostles' Creed is recited by Christians during Christian worship services. Before the end comes, the Gospel will be preached to the entire world: Bible prophecy: Matthew 24:14 Prophecy written: During the first century Prophecy fulfilled: Fulfilled in history, currently being fulfilled Matthew 24:14: And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. In Matthew 24:14, the Bible says that the Gospel (the news about Jesus and his offer of salvation and eternal life) will be preached throughout the world. The Bible also says that sometime after this happens, the end will come. The Bible has been preached throughout the world for a long time. But now, with the increasing worldwide availability of television and the Internet, there is greater potential for the Gospel to be preached to everyone, everywhere. With the advent of the internet, T.V., radio, satellites and other forms of mass communication, indeed the world is hearing about Christ. The Best Prophecy of All: All who believe in Jesus will be saved.

7 Bible prophecy: John 3:16 Prophecy written: During the first century Prophecy fulfilled: Currently being fulfilled John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. In books, movies and Internet articles, so much attention is given to the prophecies that foretell the future of the world that we sometimes overlook the prophecies that foretell our own futures, on an individual basis. Consider, for example, John 3:16, in which Jesus prophesies that anyone who believes in him will be given the gift of eternal life with God. As we strive to understand the prophecies of the Bible, let s continue to be a people of love. I Corinthians 13:2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. Let s Pray.