When you think of a prophet, what image comes to mind? Old Testament luminaries with cloaks, staffs, and a mane of facial hair, standing alone atop a mountain? I’m thinking of Moses, Samuel, and Elijah. Or perhaps you think of the quirky seers of visions and performers of skits like Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah?
I really enjoyed season 1 of the Amazon Prime show House of David. The show tells the story of 1 Samuel 15—17:51. In the show, the prophet Samuel is a dynamic character, accurately depicting Samuel as he is in the Bible. Samuel confronts King Saul, anoints David to be king, and is revered as a spiritual leader.
There aren’t any prophets anymore, though, right? They were only for that bygone era, right? Now we have the Bible, so we don’t need prophets, do we?
It might interest you to read what Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:11–13, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
Not only does Jesus give some to be prophets, we need prophets! In those verses, notice that prophets are one of five gifts that Jesus gave to build up the church. We tend to think that pastor is the primary role to build up churches. According to Paul, though, there are five roles that God gave to build up the church, and prophets are specifically mentioned.
Let me say it again. We need prophets in the life of the church. Does your church need prophets? Yes!
What does a prophet do? What is the job description of a prophet? Join me back here on Monday as we look at 1 Thessalonians 5:20–22, which talks about prophets in the church, including how we evaluate prophets. And does your church already have prophets? If so, who are they? We’ll talk about it next week.
Photo by Victoria Wang on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 