Sunday Sermons
A Prophet's Honor
A Prophet’s Honor
Jesus told His disciples, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me. Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12). Initially, these verses may sound discouraging, for no one wants to experience suffering, ridicule or persecution, yet they are also encouraging. We are not prophets, but we bring their message and the message of the apostles, and while we are not prophets, the world will often treat us like it treated the prophets in the past. So what can we expect, what do we need to prepare for, and what perspective do we need in order to overcome?
You Will Be Misrepresented
Jesus specifically said, that people would “…say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me” (5:11). Whatever accusations exist against God’s people must be “false” because the child of God is walking in the light (1 John 1:5ff). One specific misrepresentation that surfaces in both Testaments is the claim that the righteous person is a fool:
- Hosea 9:7 “The days of punishment have come, the days of retribution have come; Let Israel know this! The prophet is a fool, the inspired man is demented, because of the grossness of your iniquity, and because your hostility is so great.”
Even though the nation of Israel was going down in flames, the prophets who spoke with passion and clarity and were giving the obvious solution, they were nevertheless considered crazy and foolish. And this is a common attitude that the world has had for God’s spokesmen:
- “Why did this mad fellow come to you?” (2 Kings 9:11)
- “To be overseer in the house of the Lord over every madman who prophesies, to put him in the stocks and in the iron collar” (Jeremiah 29:26)
- “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?” (John 7:20)
- “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” (John 8:48)
- “Paul, you are out of your mind! Your great learning is driving you mad” (Acts 26:24).
Calling the child of God “mad”, or “ignorant” or “backward”, “an extremist”, or “idealistic” is nothing new, rather it has been throughout time a very old way of conveniently dismissing an inconvenient truth. History has proven that the prophets were not mad, when all their predictions came to pass. They were not crazy, rather they saw very clearly the solution and the consequences if that solution was rejected. In like manner, children of God see the world as it is; we are not under any false illusions about life, death, eternity, right, wrong, or what this world is all about. “And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17). Consider this verse for a moment. The Christian understands that all the things that the world is madly chasing after are only temporary, and every earthly temptation or vice is only temporary. It would be truly foolish to chase after such things because they only exist during a fraction of your and my existence. For much more than 99.9 percent of our existence such things will not exist, and it would foolish to wrap my life and meaning, or sell my soul for any earthly pleasure. The days of clinging to material possessions, drugs, booze, fornication and so on are very limited. Every lust in the world has a limited life-time, its days are limited. Even Christians can forget that the days of abortion are coming to an end, also the days of pornography, or illegal drugs or greed—it is all eventually coming to an end.
“We Are Not Impressed”
“For they say, ‘His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive, and his speech contemptible’” (2 Corinthians 10:10). We should not be shocked when people are not impressed with the gospel, God, or anything that we are trying to do.
Expect Snares
“Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet; yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways” (Hosea 9:8). Ephraim compromised, and the world will often attempt to ensnare, trick and compromise the person who is speaking the truth. Common “snares” my sound like the following:
- “Can’t you just go along with the rest if us?” (1 Kings 22:13).
- “What is wrong with you—you are so out of sync with everyone else” (1 Kings 22:13).
- “Can’t you just water down the message a little?” (2 Timothy 4:2).
- “You are the one with the problem” (1 Kings 18:17).
- “You can compromise a little, can’t you?” (1 Kings 13:9; 13:15-18).
- “Where is God?” “Where is the fulfillment of what you said is going to happen” (2 Peter 3:4ff).
“Look, they keep saying to me, ‘Where is the word of the Lord?’ Let it come now!’” (Jeremiah 17:15). Those who heard Jeremiah taunted him and demanded an immediate fulfillment of what God had said would happen. Like some today, the attitude is, “Let it come!” Or, “If there is a God in heaven, let Him strike me dead”—followed by making fun of the fact that they are still alive---which to them “proves” that God does not exist.
“For I have heard the whispering of many, ‘Terror on every side!’ Denounce him; yes, let us denounce him! All my trusted friends, watching for my fall, say, ‘Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against him and take our revenge on him’” (Jeremiah 20:10). “All who had to do with his welfare were watching for him to make a false step...The total social and psychological support of his fellow villagers and kinsmen was denied to him. It was a devastating experience” (Thompson p. 460). This is still one of the favorite tactics of the world to silence those who are bothering their consciences. If they can observe simply one misstep in the life of a righteous man--then they think that such negates everything that individual proclaimed. Funny how we think that the sin of someone else excuses us! This ancient attitude is equally seen when people “hope” that the child of God will somehow self-destruct, in fact, some people will say things like, “Don’t try to be so straight or you will break”. It is the attitude that anyone who really tries to do what the Bible says will only end up going crazy in the process. Yet Jeremiah is not discouraged. He knows that he is not going to fail, and he will not fall---yet those who hope for his fall will indeed fail! (20:11) and sadly, it will be an eternal failure. When the child of God realizes that the world is rooting for his failure in either a marriage, parenting or other areas, all of a sudden there is a healthy soberness that makes us realize that the world that we are being tempted to impress is actually desiring our complete destruction.
Expect Some Isolation
“I did not sit in the circle of merrymakers, nor did I exult. Because of Thy hand upon me I sat alone” (Jeremiah 15:17); “Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you…” (Luke 6:22); “Jesus heard that they had put him out” (John 9:35).
I find it ironic that the world often views the biblical practice of church discipline, especially the withdrawal aspect, as being incredibly cruel (Matthew 18:17), yet the world practices its own form of withdrawal. Many believers through the ages have found themselves ostracized from various social circles, promotions, family get-togethers and so on. The good news is that this isolation is superficial and insignificant compared to the deep fellowship that the believer has with God and fellow believers. Losing friends in becoming a Christian needs to be put in perspective. Anyone who will no longer be your friend because you are doing what is in your and their best eternal interest was never really that much of a friend to begin with. This is something I have discovered in my life. Many of the “friendships” and associations in the world are based on temporary and fleeting things like a common earthly interest, or kids who happen to be in the same school, or something else that will inevitably change. In fact, most people of the world do not have the same friends they had just ten or twenty years ago. Thus the believer opts to be a friend of God first (James 2:23), and then allows that friendship expose the superficial friendships and cement the real ones.
God’s View of His People
God’s view of people stands in great contrast to the world, which has always underestimated the value of spiritual things, including the value of the believer:” But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man” (1 Corinthians 2:15). This verse reveals that the Christian understands and sees the true value of everything, while the world is not only unqualified to do this, it cannot even properly access the value of the Christian.
- Instead of “trouble-makers” or “mad-men”, God calls His prophets and His people “watchmen” (Hosea 9:8; Ezekiel 33:1-9).
- They are far from being useless, nuisances or unnecessary, rather, they are “My Servants” (2 Kings 9:7).
No matter the hardships that come to those who love and serve God, the rewards for enduring such are so incredibly worth it, it’s beyond comparison. Let’s think forward and be “farsighted” the next time we experience insult or injury worthy of a prophet.
Mark Dunagan | mdunagan@frontier.net
Beaverton Church of Christ | 503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net
