KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
September 10, 2006
What do you think of when you hear this word: prophet? (Answers from audience)
I usually think of someone like John the Baptist. I usually think of strange, hairy people who don’t brush their teeth and make me feel uncomfortable.
What about martyr? What do you think of when you hear the word: martyr? (Answers from audience)
I usually think of someone who dies because he or she refuses to give up their faith. Did you know there were more Christian martyrs in the 20th century than in all other centuries combined?
Usually, though, when I think of prophets and martyrs, I don’t think of you and me. I think of other people. People out there somewhere. Strange people in strange places, or suffering people in suffering places (just north of us for example). I don’t usually think of us as prophets and martyrs. But John does. God does. Revelation does.
Let’s read Revelation 10 and 11.
This week as I was doing my research for this sermon I read something not very encouraging: “This section is perhaps the most difficult passage to interpret in the entire book of Revelation.”1 Great! The most difficult passage in the most difficult book of the Bible. (Why did I ever decide to preach through Revelation?) But if we stay out of the fine details, the general point of these two chapters is clear enough.
Let’s look first at chapter 10. Here John sees an amazing angel, who looks a lot like the picture of Jesus in chapter 1.2 We could talk all day about the details here, but I want to skip straight to the main point. The angel gives John the scroll in his hand, probably representing God’s plans for our world, maybe representing our Bible.
The angel says, “Take it, and eat it.” That seems like a strange thing to do with a scroll or a book. I have eaten many strange things in my life, but I’ve never eaten a book. If I did eat a book, I would be very surprised if it tasted like honey.
What’s going on? In a similar passage in Ezekiel, God tells Ezekiel to eat a scroll, and then he interprets this event by saying, “Let all my words sink deep into your own heart first. Listen to them carefully for yourself. Then go to your people … and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says!’” (Ezekiel 3:1-11).
God is telling John, “Look, before you can be my messenger, you’ve got to let my message sink into your heart and take hold of you. You have to let it get into your bones, into your heart.
This comes at a cost. Living God’s message is not easy. It gives John a stomach ache. Sometimes, God’s message is painful because it calls us to a live a more faithful life, to give up things that are important to us.
Finally, the angel says to John, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings” (10:11). A prophet takes the message in and then lives the message out. A prophet hears the message, is changed by the message, and then speaks the message. That is God’s plan.
Let’s move on to chapter 11. During the time of trouble, two witnesses stand up against those who are destroying the earth.3 The wild language of verses 4-6 is actually describing the two witnesses as being like two of Israel’s greatest prophets: Moses and Elijah who did similar things (Exodus 6-11, 1 Kings 17, 2 Kings 1). So two prophets like the greatest prophets of all time will prophesy and call people back to God.
Unfortunately, most people don’t listen. The prophet-witnesses become martyrs. The beast kills them. Why? The Message paraphrases 11:10 like this: “These two prophets pricked the conscience of all the people on earth, made it impossible for them to enjoy their sins.” The two prophets’ faithful lives and faithful messages pointed out to the world around them how unfaithful their lives were. The people finally take the ultimate step to relieve their guilty feelings – they kill the people making them feel guilty.
Who are these two prophets? The prophets are called lampstands.4 If you remember from chapter 1, the churches are also called lampstands (1:20). Look also at 11:18, “The time has come to judge the dead, to reward your servants, all prophets and saints, to reward small and great who fear your name” (from The Message). Here servants, prophets, and saints are all one group of people.
Long ago, Moses said, “I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit upon them all” (Numbers 11:29). We read today Joel’s description of the end times: “I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants, men and women alike” (Joel 2:28-29). Peter said Joel’s prophecy is fulfilled in the church (Acts 2). This is now the time of the outpouring of the Spirit on all people. All true Christians have the gift of the Holy Spirit and live as prophets in the world.
Who are the two prophet-martyrs of chapter 11? Not someone “out there and far away.” We are the prophet-martyrs. The church of Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, is called to live a prophetic life in our world. This is our story. We are called to be God’s prophets in the world. We are the two prophet-martyrs. We are the ones who are killed in the streets. We are the ones who trust in God’s power to raise us from the dead. We are the prophets.
If this is true, if we really are God’s prophets – all of us, then we need to ask some questions. First, what does it mean to be a prophet? What exactly does a prophet do? A prophet gives God’s message to people. A prophet speaks for God to the people, calling the people to live out God’s dream for them.
Prophets see an alternate reality.5 They see a world where life is done God’s way. They see past the current world’s rules of ambition, power, success, and self-righteousness. They see another possibility. They see a world full of justice and love and mercy, a world where people are not hungry or alone or afraid, a world where God’s hospitality overwhelms all divisions and all sufferings. They see the world Joel described (Joel 2).
Basically, prophets see the coming of God’s Kingdom. They see that one day it will come in fullness, like our passage describes, “The whole world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” (11:15). Prophets call on people to live in this coming Kingdom now on earth. Prophets call people to recognize God’s Kingdom as ultimate even when it doesn’t seem like it here on earth. Prophets proclaim the Kingdom.
Next question: How do prophets prophesy? If prophets speak for God about God’s Kingdom coming in our world, how do they do this? Well, prophets obviously use words. The Bible is full of the words of prophets. But prophets also speak through their actions. God called some of the Old Testament prophets to live out their message in powerful and sometimes strange ways. God called on the prophets to embody their message. God called them to live the message in their own bodies, in their own lives.
Prophets deliver their message through words and actions. Prophets deliver God’s message about the Kingdom through what they say and how they live. They intentionally do some physical actions as sign-acts to deliver God’s message in a dramatic, real-life way.
Last question: How can we live as prophets? If God really is calling us all to be prophets of his Kingdom (and he is), how can we do this? How can we give God’s message to the world around us?
First, eat the message. Internalize the message. Get God’s word inside you. Let God’s word sink into your heart and become part of who you are. Look into the future. Imagine a world done God’s way. Imagine our world done God’s way.
Then, live the message. Live out the message. Live God’s Kingdom way all of the time everywhere. Francis Assisi said: “Preach the Gospel always and if necessary use words.” Think of ways you can embody God’s message in your actions. Think of ways we can embody God’s message in our church. Maybe, like the prophets, we can also do some specific practical things to give God’s message to the world around us. What can we do that will help us show God’s love through concrete actions?
Finally, speak the message. If we really live the message, words always become necessary. The words we speak clarify the message we live. The living must come first, but to be faithful we must also speak. Speaking the message explains why we are living the way we are living, why we are doing what we are doing.
Church, God is calling us to be living prophets. God is calling us to give his message to the world. God has put his Spirit in us. God wants to speak through us to the Christians and nonChristians around us. We are the prophet-martyrs. We are God’s message. You are God’s message. Your life and your actions speak to the world around you. What are you saying? What message is your life speaking?
What would it look like for us to live as prophets in our world? Let me give you a few examples.
Our first example is Mark Grouleau. Mark is a trained musician. He plays drums, bass, and piano. When he came to our church, he really struggled with our music. The quality and style was just not what he wanted. For a while he complained about it to his friends, but one day he made a change. He joined the music team. He saw a new reality. Then, then he began to live out that future in his own life. Now, he is able to speak within the music team about new possibilities.
Next, as you know, hakwons are a big deal in Korea. Some kids here go to school 12-18 hours a day, sometimes 7 days a week. Education has become a god in Korea. A few families in our church made a prophetic choice to stand up against this culture of education-at-any-cost. They have decided that their children will not go to hakwons. The kids study at home, and the parents help them with their homework. They have decided that life and family are more important than education and outward success. By the way, their kids are doing well in school. (I’m not preaching against any use of hakwons. I am preaching against over-using hakwons.)
Let me give you one last example. This example is you. For the past two years, our church has opened our Thanksgiving Dinner to the public. We’ve invited English teachers and other people from around our city to enjoy our hospitality. In a time when many people are lonely and missing home, we gave people a taste of community and home. This Thanksgiving Dinner is a prophetic act to our community, showing God’s message of loving community in living color. If you would like to help plan this year’s Thanksgiving Dinner (or End of Year Dinner), please talk to me.
Church, we are living prophets. God wants to speak his message to the world through us. God wants to bring his Kingdom through us. Take that message into your hearts. Live that message out. Be the message. Live and act and speak as living prophets in our world.
1 Craig Keener, Revelation, NIV App. Comm., (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), 287.
2 See Pat Marvenko Smith’s picture of this at:
3 See Smith’s picture at: http://www.revelationillustrated.com/shop/image16.htm .
4 See Ted Larson’s picture of this at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~theoson/The%20Two%20Witnesses.htm .
5 Denis Bratcher, “Prophets Today?” http://www.crivoice.org/prophetstoday.html.
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