A Prophetic Church 1986

Matthew chapter 5, verse 1. Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain. When he sat down, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Who are these blessed ones? They are the prophets of the kingdom. Oh, but Jesus doesn't call them prophets here, does he? Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.

They persecuted the prophets who were before you, and they will persecute you, too, because you, too, are prophets. If there is anything the Spirit of God has been showing us here about the form his body is to take as he works with this assembly, it is that this church is to be a prophetic church, a church which has a living word all through every member of the body a prophet. So what's a prophet? A prophet has two characteristics.

First of all, a prophet is a person who listens with a tender heart. And secondly, a prophet is a person who speaks with thick-skinned boldness. First of all, a prophet is a person who listens with a tender heart to a word from God.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The poor in spirit are the prophets of the kingdom who listen with a tender heart for a word from God. That word from God is the kingdom.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. The mourners of the kingdom listen with tender hearts for a word from God, and that word brings them comfort. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

The meek of the kingdom listen with tender hearts for a word from God, and that word gives them power over the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They shall be satisfied because they listen with tender hearts, hungering and thirsting for a word from God.

That word from God satisfies their thirst for righteousness because it wraps them in the righteousness of Christ. Moving back into Isaiah chapter 50. Got a problem? Okay, you got it.

Okay. Isaiah chapter 50 verse 4. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. The Lord God has given me the tongue of a prophet.

How does he give me the tongue of a prophet? By first of all giving me the ear of a prophet and the heart of a prophet. By morning he awakens my ear. To hear is those who are taught.

The Lord has opened my ear and I was not rebellious. I didn't harden my heart. My heart was soft and tender to what he had to tell me.

The prophet, before he can or she can speak with any authority, has to have a tender heart toward God. Listen. See, it's not that God isn't speaking to us.

God speaks to us. But we are so hard in our hearts. We're so preoccupied in our minds with our own program and our own judgments that we don't hear.

Oh how we need to learn to listen, to be still, to take off our shoes and wait for God to speak. The prophet is also a person who listens with a tender heart to the cries of the bruised reed. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.

The merciful are the prophets of the kingdom who listen with a tender heart to the cry of the widow, the orphan, the oppressed, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked. And do something about it. Now don't tell me you're concerned about what's going on in Central America or South Africa or the Middle East or Southeast Asia if you walk right by here.

If you're concerned here, you better be concerned everywhere. But proximity is necessary. Advocacy without proximity is hypocrisy.

The big word everywhere all over the the institutional church today is advocacy. You can't advocate for somebody whose crust, bitter crust, you don't share. I was hungry and you gave me food.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. Naked and you clothed me.

I was sick and you came to me. I was in prison and you visited me. Others walked by, they did not hear my cry.

You heard my cry with a tender heart and you answered. Now all that is the tender part of the prophet. But the prophet also has a hard part and if you take the hard part off the tender part is meaningless.

The prophet of God also speaks with thick-skinned boldness the word that he or she has been given by God. And so we read in Ezekiel chapter 2 and he said to me, son of man, stand upon your feet and I will speak to you. And he spoke to me and when he spoke to me the Spirit entered into me and set me upon my feet and I heard him speaking to me.

The emphasis first of all on hearing, hearing, hearing. And he said to me, son of man, I send you to the people of Israel to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day.

The people are also impudent and stubborn. I send you to them and you shall say to them, thus says the Lord God. And whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house, they will then know because they have heard you that there has been a prophet among them.

And you, son of man, be not afraid of them. Be not afraid of their words, though briars and thorns are with you and you sit upon scorpions. Be not afraid of their words nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.

You shall speak my words to them whether they hear or refuse to hear. So Ezekiel goes and speaks the word to the people. They're not going to put him on television.

They're not going to buy him a Cadillac as a love offering. They're gonna spit in his face. Be not afraid of them.

Be not afraid of their words. Though thorns and briars be with you, though you sit upon scorpions. In other words, you better have a thick skin.

I mean, don't be trying to sit on scorpions if you don't have a thick skin. You'll die. Don't be afraid of their words and don't be afraid of their looks.

Speak what I've given you to speak with boldness. This picture we're so often given, many of us have had, of Jesus so sweet and tender. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild.

Now granted, he listens to the voice of his father with a tender heart. He listens to the voice of the oppressed, the wounded, the hurting, the forgotten, the lost sheep. Everybody else walks on him.

Everybody else ignores him. Jesus hears them with tenderness, but that's the only place we see Jesus tender. Far more accurate is a picture of one who is hard.

They didn't nail Jesus to the cross because he was sweet and tender. They nailed Jesus to the cross, and we would have done it if we had been there, because he spoke a word that was hard and bold and an offense to the religious establishment of his day. A word that they absolutely couldn't handle anymore.

He had to go, and the disciple is not above his master. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Why are they going to revile us and persecute us and say all kinds of evil against us falsely on Jesus' account? Because we're sweet and tender? Because we're meek and mild? Because we speak a word that is clear-cut and bold, a word that will bring life to some and that will, the because it will be an offense. And you will not speak that word with any integrity unless your skin is thick and your heart is bold. Just as congregations of believers worship God in many different ways.

I mean, you could look out over the city of Detroit and out across the whole world. Some use a piano, some use a pipe organ, some use drums and trumpets, some are loud, some are quiet, some don't even allow a musical instrument in the place. But they're all worshiping God.

In the same way, you could say that assemblies of believers, congregations of believers, take on certain forms as they fulfill their purpose, whether it's an earthly purpose or a heavenly purpose. God is the judge of that. And so you have the friendly church, the busy, busy church, the therapeutic church, the prosperity church, the self-esteem church, where you go to get your self-esteem pumped up, pumped up a little bit.

What's becoming very clear to us here is that if we, in the location where we are, are to have any impact at all for the kingdom of God, we have no choice under God but to be a prophetic church. About early February, the leadership of the congregation began coming into unity, as never before really in my estimation, and they came into unity around, they may not describe it in this way, but I will anyway and they can correct me if I'm wrong, like a revelation from God or a sense from God that this is to be a church which has a prophetic impact, a living word through all its members, so that when we gather like this or when we gather in small groups and especially when we go forth from here into our jobs and into our neighborhoods and homes, the outcome must be wherever we are that a living word comes forth that has an impact for the kingdom of God, from our mouths matched by what we live. And about the same time, early February, along with the rest of the leadership of the congregation, I began to receive what I'm absolutely certain is a word from God, and it came something like this, don't try to hold people together anymore by anything other than a clear word from me.

If that word offends, let it offend, as long as it's my word and not yours. For if it's my word, even if it does offend, it will also draw, edify, equip, and send forth prophets of the kingdom. And the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who were invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And he said to me, these are the true words of God. Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The spirit of prophecy has a twofold message for us today. One, listen with a tender heart.

Two, speak with thick-skinned boldness. Listen with a tender heart. When you get along with God each day and withdraw and seek his face, cry out, oh God, speak to me.

Your word is spirit and it is life. I can't live by bread alone, I must have a word from you. Be not silent to me, lest that thou be silent to me.

I become like them that go down into the pit, speak to me, oh God. When you gather in small groups, listen for a word from God, even if you have to sit with nothing coming out of your mouth for three hours. And when we come together as we do now, week by week, to break bread in the name of the Lamb, listen again for a word from God.

Translate that word into living, into action, do something with it, build your house on the rock. And listen also to the cries of the bruised wreaths, the lost sheep, the oppressed, near and far, the wounded, the forgotten, and the hurted. As we do this, a word from God will begin to burn like fire in our hearts, and we will find that now we have to open our mouths and speak of him before whose name every knee will act upon, whose lordship every tongue will have to confess, angels will, men and women will, and even devils will, speak of him, of Jesus.

Don't be ashamed to speak that name, and as you do, they won't be putting a metal on you, they will malign you and slander you. Don't be upset by it, don't be, have a thick skin. Don't be afraid of them, don't be afraid of their words.

Though thorns and briars be with you, and you sit on scorpions, don't be afraid of their words, don't be afraid of their looks, speak. Speak of the Lamb, and from your mouth, as well as from your life, will come a word that will bear fruit, fruit of judgment and fruit of grace. But the word coming out of your life and out of your mouth will not come back empty, it will do its job, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Now to translate that into exactly where each of us is right now, let's think of the coming week, beginning at this moment, as a time when we'll be doing these two things, when we will listen, listen, beginning now, for a word from God, and secondly, that opportunities will come through the week for us to speak, and let's grapple, move in and say what you need to say, do it, and absolutely God will confirm that word to us, and we will have such joy as we see his word accomplishing its purpose. Now before we go to silence, it may also be in the middle of all this, that somebody has come in here today who is on the very verge of the kingdom of God, you're at the doorway, so while we're all listening in silence, and even while we're singing the next hymn, if you desire to, we would welcome you to come right down to the altar rail and let somebody pray with you, and you make whatever decision you have to make, whatever commitment, and if you miss that boat, you get one more chance before you leave today, when the service is over, there will be a time down here by the altar rail, come on down and talk to somebody, have somebody pray with you, but don't leave until you've taken care of business, whatever that business is. Okay, let's just take some time in silence, and Helen, I'm going to signal you to lead us in a prayer to close, okay?