Study 9 & 10
A book of amazing predictions
 |
| Our group visit to the British Museum! |
From a very young age, we want to know what is going to happen next. A child will get very upset if someone stops in the middle reading a story! We have a hard time turning off the TV, putting down a good book, etc. We want to know the rest of the story.
We want to know what happens next!!
We all want to know how things are going to turn out.
Guess what. The disciples were no different.
Matthew 24:3
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"
Most of Chapter 24 of Matthew is his answer.
Why do we have prophecy?
1Corinthians 14:3 "Those who prophesy speak to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort."
For good - to help us, to guide us.
IT IS OKAY FOR CHRISTIANS TO HAVE DIFFERING CONVICTIONS ABOUT PROPHECY. Do you think God wants to see his children bicker and fight over when and how the world is going to end? None of us has enough information to know all the details about what is going to happen in the future. We have only that which is in the Bible, and that may convey a different meaning to different people - we must approach prophecy discussions with a spirit of peace and love.
WHAT IS PROPHECY?
Prophecy means speaking on behalf of God, delivering His message or words. There are prophets in the Old and the New Testament. Some prophecy delivers the will of God for his people - teaching, directing, warning. A second kind of prophecy predicts the future - this is usually what we think of when we think of prophecy (who doesn’t want to know the future, right?).
We study prophecy not only to learn about the future, but to understand our daily lives - we have an advantage over those who do not know their Bibles - we can rest in the certainty of Christ's victorious ending - “that every knew shall bow” (Phil 2:10, Roman 14:11) - giving us strength, steadiness, and confidence in the midst of our day to day anxieties, stress, or hard circumstances.
WHY IS BIBLICAL PROPHECY IMPORTANT?
-prophecy encourages Godly living
1 John 3:2-3
"Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure."
Knowing the future stirs us to holy living in preparation of meeting to the One who is pure. PURE - I love the Bible verses about purity - there seems to be so little of it in this world today.
-prophecy gives us hope
Revelation 21:4
"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for he old order of things has passed away"
When we see suffering, tragedy, sin around us - let us cling to this verse and the truth and hope in it!
We live in a complicated world, with pressures and international conflicts.
But we know that God is in control.
--We should not attempt to guess at the date of the end times.
Matthew 24:36
“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,but only the Father."
Many people feel they see “signs” of the end times. I have an aunt who is I'm sure well meaning but constantly sending emails about warnings of the end times...
It gets to be a turn off.
Instead of trying to calculate such things and obsess over the aspects of our world that are clear signs of the end times, we should be alert and ready, ready in our hearts, and motivated to help as many people as possible to come to know Christ Jesus (through our actions and love).
Here are some visuals with great examples of prophecy from the Bible
Now with all this accurate prophecy, we would think that people would just GET IT. The Bible is God's true word to us. EASY.
But no.
We are stubborn aren't we?!
We're going to look at 3 things that critics say, so you can be prepared with a response when talking to others.
First, people say, it is pure coincidence.
COINCIDENCE = GOD'S WORK
Guess what, it cannot possibly be coincidence.
How many prophecies did we say Jesus fulfilled? Yes over 300.
Here are a few of them.
Mathematicians will assure you, this CANNOT be coincidence!
Secondly, some people are going to say that because the Bible was written by men, that once we knew about Jesus's life, they were smart enough to go back to the Old Testament and change all the verses about him so that it all matched up. Yes, they took all the events of Jesus's life and then went back and edited the OT so that it all makes sense.
Why is that wrong???
What do we know from our last few lessons?
From about 433 BC, the OT was complete and DID NOT CHANGE after that - we know this because of all the archeological evidence - manuscripts, scrolls, etc that have been unearthed - and low and behold it is the same text we have today!
Finally, some will argue that because they had the Old Testament, and we know Jesus knew it all right - that he then made sure that he was checking all the boxes to be "The Messiah". He made it all happen for himself. Hmmmm.....how many of us choose the place of our birth and death? Do you think he could control the Roman guards? There are just frankly too many "coincidences" (again) for this to be orchestrated. Impossible!
So what does all this prophecy stuff mean for us.
We learned from this week’s lesson - the fact that the Bible is 30% prophecy and so far the accuracy is spot on, we have trust in this book - as the Word of God. It is a supernatural book. Being able to predict the future can only come from Him who knows the future - from our supernatural God - our Alpha and Omega.
Prophecy gives us warnings and encouragement - God will make everything right - justice may seem deferred but it will never be denied. God is already working to fulfill his purposes through Jesus - through Christ he entered the suffering of the world, bore the world’s sin, and fights against evil. He will continue to show us His faithfulness!
God does not want us to worry about the future or try to predict it ourselves....
George MacDonald said:
No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourself so! If you find yourself so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God’s. He begs you to leave the future to him, and to mind the present.
No comments :
Post a Comment