 What is a prophet? More specifically, what is the difference between an Old Testament prophet and a New Testament prophet? Is there a difference? Is there any sort of qualifications to be one? Is it that anybody can be a prophet? Is any prophecy considered to be prophecy of God? Well, let's go to the description. We're gonna find out that there's a difference between the Old Testament prophet and a New Testament prophet. As a matter of fact, there's gonna be also a difference between a person who is in the office of a prophet versus the kind of prophecy that we would see even happening today. So, first thing we do is go and look at Ephesians 4, 11. Notice it says that he, this is God, he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastor-teacher. Now, this pastor-teacher, that's the fourth one. It's not a five-fold office, it's four offices. That last one is pastor-teacher. Those go together. This is the shepherd, the word, the Greek word that's there is the Greek word. We may not say so. The shepherd who also must be a teacher. Now, the question is this issue of prophets and do we still have these sort of prophets? Now, the prophets that he's speaking of right now are not the sort of prophets that we see in the Old Testament, the prophets like the Daniels, the prophets like Ezekiel, Jeremiah. They're not the same sort of prophets. How do we know? Well, if we go to Ephesians 2, 20, notice what he says. He says, and having built on the foundation that it's a church of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. So Jesus is the cornerstone of this foundation. The foundation is laid with two groups, the apostles and the prophets. It would be difficult for anyone to come today and say that they are a modern day apostle as well as a prophet for this reason, mainly because notice this is the foundation, the foundation of the church. There cannot be a second foundation or third foundation. What we can do is build on it. What we're gonna notice is there are no new apostles just like there are no new prophets of the New Testament. Now there is a difference between the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament prophets. These prophets that spoken of in Ephesians 2 are not the same prophets of old. Why? Because they're not part of the church. They are in the body, however the problem is, or the differentiation between those Old Testament prophets are they are not the foundation of the church. The church is built off those who have placed their faith in Christ and have received the Holy Spirit. Though those people have gone on to be in glory with the Father does not mean that they were part of the church. The church has not been, at least at the time of their death had not been instituted. So who are these prophets that are being spoken of? Well, think about this. One, matter of fact, before we go there, we need to understand what is a prophet? What does it also mean to prophesy? What the prophesy means to give an utterance, to give a declaration, to give a word or revelation from God. And so what would a prophet do? A prophet is someone who does that. Now there also needs to be understood that there are different types of prophets. Obviously the prophets of God, but we also have prophets of Baal, prophets of the Ashrah, prophets who are false prophets, lying prophets, dependent upon who you're prophesying or getting your revelation from and for whose benefit will determine if you are a prophet or what type of prophet. Prophets of God give a revelation or a word from God. God wants to communicate something to his people and so he will use a prophet to do so in the Old Testament. Remember, they didn't have what we have in the Old Testament, they didn't have what we have after Christ. They didn't have the spirit in all of the believers, all of the followers. That wasn't how it was set up. As a matter of fact, we're gonna also find out something different between the prophets of the New Testament versus the believers today. There was something that's different then that is different today. But going back to seeing these prophets, going back to Ephesians 4, I wanna make sure we see this point here. And he gave some as apostles and some as prophets. Now, someone will say, well, Corey, if we believe that he has and he's no longer giving any other new apostles and new prophets, well, in Ephesians 4, 11, we have evangelists, we certainly still have evangelists now as a matter of fact, the Bible encourages us to have evangelists and then also pastor teachers. We certainly have pastors and teachers, but there's a difference. This word Edokun is the past tense, it's the heiress tense saying that he gave those. Now, does that mean that he's still giving them? No, he gave them for a specific reason. He gave them for the building up of the church. If there were no other passages to demonstrate that there are these other offices being given further, we have to conclude that these gifts are or these offices are closed. So we don't see any more apostles being mentioned or being given in the New Testament nor do we see any other prophets. What we see are evangelists and shepherds being mentioned of as a matter of fact, even encouraged as well as the qualifications given for them. We don't see that anymore for apostles and prophets. There are no passages that are saying what the qualifications are of an apostle or prophets say what we have been told about the apostles. Now, when we compare Ephesians 2 20, notice what's missing. The foundation of the church is the or are the apostles and the prophets. What's missing? The evangelists as well as the pastor teachers. Why? Because the pastor teacher or the evangelists are not the foundation of a church. Why? Because he's going to continue to keep giving those. We're going to see those further we go throughout the New Testament. We're going to see pastors. We're going to see evangelists. As a matter of fact, Paul's dying words will say whatever your ministry is fulfill your ministry as an evangelist. And then we also have the different qualifications for anyone that wants to be a pastor for anyone who wants to even be a deacon as well. We don't see such a call or such qualifications that are spelled out for a prophet or apostle. So Ephesians 4 11 is speaking about the church being put together and why it's given. Now, there's something that you understand and think about it makes sense. The reason why we have prophets given is because at the founding of the church, there's something that they don't have that we have. They have apostles and they've got a growing church. What they don't have that we have, same Holy Spirit, they don't have a written word. Why is that important? Because as you plan a church and you've got Paul literally teaching Peter, you've got Paul literally teaching Timothy and Titus how to select men, how to encourage and train these men, how to choose faithful men who would hold themselves to the word. Why is that important? Well, because they don't have the written word. And so as these churches are being planted, you've got people that are placing their faith in Christ, but they don't know what about Christ. They don't have enough information. They just know their hearts have been regenerated. They place their faith in what he's done, but they don't have any training, any teaching, any epistles like we have. What we have is a written word. What they don't have is a written word. And so what does God give? God gives mankind the ability to give his revelation. So you're gonna have these prophets who will come and give God's revelation. Now what's important is there are two types of prophecy. There is a foretelling prophecy and then there is a fourth telling prophecy. The foretelling prophecy is typically what most folks think of when they think of a prophet or prophecy. Someone who's gonna say what the future is going to be. However, the other prophecy is the fourth telling prophecy. It tells what is, what is currently, what the word of the Lord has said, either he is saying or has said. That makes up the overwhelming majority of prophecy in the Bible. We would think that, some people think that the prophecies that are most often mentioned are foretelling, predictive prophecies, but they're not. The most common prophecy in the Bible is what is happening now or what has been said of the Lord. Why is that important? Because when God gives his spirit, he's giving some to be apostles, the overwhelming majority of them are going to give this revelation of God, what God is saying, what God has done. And so in Acts two, when God pours his spirit out and Peter gets up and he gives the prophecy from Joel, now all of the prophecy of Joel two has not been fulfilled. It's being fulfilled. There's more to it. And we simply only think about the part where he says that his spirit would be poured out upon all different types of flesh and that men and women will prophesy. What does that mean? Are we to take it that on the day of Pentecost and going forward, that God is gonna give people even in that day that they're sitting there giving predictive prophecy, all of those people are giving all of these different individual future telling prophecies. No, that's not the case. What they're doing is they're giving a revelation. Why? Because that's what's needed. These people are coming to Christ. Now they need to know what they've come to Christ, what their faith is about. Paul makes a statement in 2 Timothy two that he has fought the fight, the good fight and he has kept the faith, not kept believing but kept the faith. Well, what is the faith? These people need to know if they're gonna place their faith in it. Well, what did I just place my faith in? And so we see various types of people who are now having, because the spirit is in them, especially at that time, having the ability to prophesy. And in this case, even women are prophesying. As a matter of fact, we hear of Philip who has four daughters who are also prophecies. Now, the Bible didn't say what they prophesied about. Presumably they just simply gave a revelation of the Lord. Remember, a revelation is what a prophet, a true prophet of God is gonna give. He is going to be accurate. He's not gonna be vague. If a person says this is what they think about the Bible, I believe this is about the word, that's not necessarily them acting or functioning as a prophet, but if someone says that the Lord said, well, that's different, whether it be a foretelling or a foretelling prophecy. So a person who is in the office of the prophet that does not seem to be continued, because again, they are part of the foundation. There is no second foundation or third foundation being laid. So we're not building a new foundation, but what we're doing is we are walking in the ministry that God has given us. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse five, we see this being spoken of about women. He says, but every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, indicating that even women prophesy it. That would not be a statement that Paul would make if women did not prophesy it. But women are not given in this case, he's not to be taken that they are given these foretelling prophecies, they are given the foretelling prophecy. Is it possible to say that there are no foretelling prophecies that could be given? No, we can't say that because there are no passages that say that there cannot be any foretelling prophecies. However, what we have to do is hold the prophet accountable to his work. If he's going to say that the Lord said, and it did not come to pass, well then that's a person that we not only not fear, but we reject that person by and call them prophet, he's a false prophet, he's a lying prophet, he's a prophet of Baal. Being a prophet is not the issue, it's what you prophesy about, what revelation do you bring? And if your revelation is not 100%, then you are not a prophet of God. Peter brings up this in 2 Peter 2 1, he says, but false prophets also arose among the people just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Now this is not to say that they're also, the false prophet is only going to come and his heresies is going to deny the master. No, he says that also they'll deny the master now. So some will deny the master, some will just be proclaiming Jesus as Lord all the while that they're trying to deceive others. Now they might do it intentionally or unintentionally, it doesn't really matter. False prophet is a false prophet, lying prophet is a lying prophet. A prophet who heirs is someone who is not a prophet of God, which is why you need to be careful if you're going to say the Lord said, God said, because you're going to be held accountable for that. And there are even those who will say so that they are a prophet of God and eventually even denying the master, denying Jesus, denying his divinity. You wanna see that more and more. Now what you need to do if a person thinks that they're a prophet, there's a warning as there's a way to go about doing this, he says that anyone thinks he is a prophet or a spiritual. This is Paul in 1st Corinthians 1437. If anyone thinks he is a prophet or a spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the lowest commandment. But if anyone does not recognize this, he is not to be recognized. So if a person is not adhering to the scriptures, adhering to what Paul writes or what anyone else has written in the scriptures, if you are going to deny those in any way, shape, or fashion, if you're gonna nullify those, if you're gonna teach people to nullify those or to go contrary to the scriptures, that person is not a prophet. When you see a woman declare herself as a prophet, she cannot be in the office of a prophet, why? Because it's very same Paul who says that if you think you're a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize the things which I wrote to you. Well, what did Paul write? Paul wrote that I do not allow a man to be taught by a woman. A woman cannot teach a man or have authority over a man, such as these folks who claim to have this office of a prophet who are females, that can't be. But then these men who want to claim to be a prophet, in many cases for titles, but if they claim to be a prophet and nothing that they say is 100% accurate, like we see in the Bible, then that person is not to be received as well. So in summary, what is a prophet? A prophet is simply someone that gives an utterance, a declaration, a revelation. Now, a true prophet of God will give this utterance, this declaration, this word, this revelation of God. And it will be accurate because he's gonna say the Lord. We'll understand that this is from the Lord. Now, in truth, are there prophets a day? In a generic sense, yes. You would consider the pastor to be akin to the prophet of old. Is he the calling of a prophet? Well, if he does, he better be careful. Can people prophesy today? Sure. If their prophecy, especially if their prophecy is the revelation from God, what's the greatest source of revelation that we have? His word. Where did that revelation come from? From God, by product of the Holy Spirit. And so to simply repeat that, we are repeating what God has revealed. There are some that have never heard this gospel. There are some that have ever been taught this. And so you are, I guess, in a generic sense, given a prophecy. Because remember, the Bible tells us that if anyone is to be used of any sort of spiritual gifting. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse one and five, the Greek is clear that you should desire these gifts. And he says this phrase, my long day in the prophethood day, which is in order that you give a revelation. In order that you prophesy. I remember the word prophesying is to bring about a revelation. So you ought to desire these spiritual gifts in order that you would bring about revelation, even if it's tongues, even if it's healings. All of these are to bring about a revelation. And why is that important? Because people need to know what does say that the Lord is. So I know this can be a bit confusing. I know folks can claim the office or claim this particular gift. Again, there's a way to judge it. If a person says they are, well, then fine, we will judge them. We will judge their gifting. We will judge everything they say by the true, the accurate inspired revelation. God, that is his word. Amen.