Good morning, open your Bibles to Acts chapter 11. Our text today will be Acts 11, 27-30. Let me say happy Mother's Day to all the mothers here and bless you for your ministry to families, to your families, and to the family God. Let's pray. Father, as we open your Word today, would you open our hearts, would you open our minds, would you open our ears and our eyes to see, to see you, to see the Lord Jesus, to see your truth, allow your Word to find entrance, to mold us, and to shape us, to conform us to the glorious image of Christ, that we would be a people giving great witness to you in this earth, to a world desperate in need of you. We ask this Father for the glory of your name. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Acts 11, 27-30. Hear the Word of the Lord. And in these days, prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. Then one of them named Agabus stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to sin relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. This they also did and sinned it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. This is the Word of the Lord. Luke did not end this part of his narrative in verse 26. In verse 26, we see that the new name of Christians was being applied to the community of believers at Antioch. Instead, Luke adds this short section which is our text today, in which he records the arrival of prophets and the actions and interactions between the church at Antioch and the Jerusalem church. I'm going to give a summary of these four verses. Then I'm going to go back to verse 27. I want to focus on the word prophets there in verse 27 specifically. I want to consider the question of prophets in the church today. In verse 27, Luke writes, that prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. In verse 28, he reveals that one of those prophets was named Agabus. We'll see this prophet Agabus again later in the book of Acts. Agabus stood up and showed by the spirit that there was going to be a great famine across the empire. Luke tells us when that happened, it happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. Roman writers confirmed the words of Luke during the reign of Claudius from about 41 to 44. Nero was the emperor who came after him. During his reign there were famine or as the King James says, as d'Arthes, meaning times of lack or scarcity across the kingdom just as Agabus prophesied. In verse 29, Luke tells us that the disciples in Antioch, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren in Judea. This interaction between the church at Antioch and the Jerusalem church and the believers in Judea showed not only cooperation but true love and concern and selflessness to give sacrificially and to send aid to those in need. Remember that these are two very different churches. They were different culturally as one was primarily a Jewish church in Jerusalem and the other in Antioch was primarily a Gentile church. Yet they were united together by one spirit into one body of Christ and that unity of the spirit was made manifest in this gesture of sending aid. It was also manifest in the gesture of the prophets coming down from Jerusalem to Antioch as they heard the news that the gospel had been preached there as Barnabas and Saul returned there in the proceeding verses here it tells us they spent about a year there assembling with the church and teaching many people. In verse 30, we see that they sent aid to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. So from Antioch they sent aid to the elders in Jerusalem for distribution to those in need. Any differences that may have they may have had were eclipsed by the love they demonstrated for one another through this interaction between the churches. It was truly a testimony of the love they had for God and the love they had for one another and so it was a powerful witness that they were indeed disciples of Jesus Christ. How by the love they had for one another. We need such a witness in the church today. It would be a glorious witness today if the church of the Lord Jesus Christ could put away her differences with one another and come together in unity of the spirit to work and pray and evangelize together to see the greater church will fill the command of Christ to disciple the nations, to baptize them, and to teach them to obey all that Christ has commanded. That is the commission Jesus has given to the church. And if the church of the Lord Jesus cannot put aside various differences in order to come together for the work of the kingdom, then what witness are we giving to the world and to the principalities and powers in the heavenly realms that watch us? And watch our witness. What do our works and actions or lack thereof convey to the heavenly realm much less to the earthly realm? We need to ask those questions and we need to live and work and pray accordingly. So that is the summary of these four verses. And there is that interaction between these two very different churches yet. They were of one spirit and it appears they were of one mind here as they work together and assisted one another. I want to go back now to verse 27 and I want to consider the role of prophets in the church today. First I would like to say that I do believe God moves supernaturally today as He wills. If we did not believe that we would not pray each week for God to heal people and touch people. I do not believe I have or any other person has the gift of healing. The gift I do not believe is present in any man or any woman so that they can heal at will those who are sick. I have had people ask me the question. I am sure you have heard it before too. Well God still heals today and one of you just go to all the hospitals and heal all the sick people. Well I do believe God still heals today but God never healed all the sick people. Jesus never healed all the sick people. He healed many and the apostles did too but I didn't heal all of them. God is the healer and healing or any other thing of the miraculous is not based on the will of man. It is based on the will of God. That's why we pray Lord let your will be done. That's not a cop out when you pray that. That's how we should pray because ultimately that is what will happen is the will of God. God doesn't always answer our prayers the way we want, when we want, how we want. But he answers our prayers and sometimes the answer is no. We should pray and expect God to do miraculous and even unusual things. We don't like that here in America but if you haven't noticed God does unusual things and he does work in mysterious ways. In ways we can't control in ways we can't explain and we especially don't like things we can't control and we certainly do not like things we can't explain. But that's a pretty accurate description of God. God is someone we cannot control and ultimately is someone we cannot explain. He has revealed to us much about himself but if you think you know everything there is to know about God you are sorely mistaken. He has revealed just enough for us to know what we need to know for our salvation. He is the infinite God which means there is no beginning to Him and there is no end of Him. You will never come to the end of knowing God because there is no end to God. There is nothing too difficult for God and there is nothing you cannot bring to the throne of grace with the expectancy that God will hear your prayer. God will answer your prayer according to His will. It is our responsibility to ask in faith and to trust God. The Bible teaches us we have not because we ask not. So ask but ask wisely. It also says you ask but you ask a miss because you ask for your own selfish reasons. Allow me to give you one last word on the general operation of spiritual gifts or the miraculous from the great Puritan theologian, John Owen. John Owen commented although all these gifts and operations ceased in some respect some of them absolutely and some of them as to the immediate manner of communication and degree of excellence yet so far as the edification of the church was concerned in them something that is analogous under them was and is continued. In other words God is still working in and through His church by His spirit for the edification of the body of Christ. And He does work in unpredictable and strange ways that we very often cannot explain. Again the prayer of bondhofer Lord I do not understand your ways but you know the way for me. Whatever you want to say ceased God is still at work in His church and by His spirit. So do we have spiritual gifts in operation the same way they were as we read about it in the New Testament. I don't think so. But can we say that God is not working that God does not do miraculous things that God does not do supernatural strange unexplained things. He absolutely does. Should we pray for those things? Yeah I think we should. When I'm sick I ask God to heal me. When you're sick I trust you'll call upon the elders of your church and have them pray with you so that the prayer of faith might heal the sick and your sins be forgiven. You should have faith for that. That's scriptural. So God is still working in His church by His spirit. Verse 27 Paul I mean Luke writes that prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. Says in these days prophets came down or prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. These days refers to the early days when Saul and Barnabas were in Antioch assembling with the church and teaching a great many people. It was at this time that the disciples were first called Christians. It was in these days that prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. Prophecy can be simply defined as hearing from God and repeating His message to others. This is what the prophets of old did. What the prophets in the Old Testament did. They heard from God and they went and they repeated God's words to those God told them to repeat them to. Might be a king, might be a whole nation. Prophets were not just four tellers as in telling things that would happen in the future. They were also fourth tellers as in speaking fourth the truth as God spoke it as God speaks it in His Word. According to Vincent's Word Studies the popular conception of a prophet is limited to his four telling future events. That's very often what we think of when we hear the word prophecy or prophets someone's predicting the future. This is indeed included in the term but it does not cover its meaning entirely. The word means to speak before or to speak in front of. This meaning may have reference to time as in to speak before or beforehand before something happens. Like Agabus there's a famine coming. He spoke it before it happened. He didn't make it happen. He just said this is what's going to happen. God revealed it to him. This meaning of beforehand, fourth telling may also have reference to time as in to speak before or beforehand or it might have reference to place as in speaking in front of or to speak publicly. If God tells his prophets to speak something he doesn't go and not speak it or he doesn't go somewhere and speak it to himself. The whole point of God speaking and telling his prophets to go and proclaim it is for someone to hear it. So they would speak publicly. The prophet is therefore primarily one who speaks standing before another kind of like what I'm doing today. I'm standing before you and I'm speaking God's truth. Does that make me a prophet? No, I'm a pastor. But I am proclaiming God's truth. The central idea of the word prophet is one to whom God reveals himself and through whom he speaks. The revelation may or may not relate to the future and the prophet is a fourth teller but not necessarily a four teller or a future teller. Robertson's word picture says of the prophet. A real prophet will always get a hearing if he has a message from God. He is a four speaker, a fourth teller. He may or may not be a four teller again. He may not predict the future but he's always proclaiming God's truth even to his own harm. The main thing is for the prophet to have a message from God which he is willing to tell at whatever cost to himself. The word of God came to John in the wilderness of Judea. Jesus said he was the greatest prophet born of women. There is a prophetic element in every real preacher of the gospel. There is a prophetic element to what I'm doing right now which is preaching to you, proclaiming to you the word of God. Real prophets become leaders and molders of men. The point of me preaching to you, the point of Caleb preaching to you, the point of anyone who stands behind this pulpit and preaches to you is that you would be molded and shaped by the word of God that you are hearing. It is the Holy Spirit who does that molding and that shaping but the Holy Spirit works through the words uttered by men. So are there still prophets today? Well that's a question still hotly debated today. There are certainly self-professed prophets today. I even know some. Being a self-professed prophet is not the same as being a prophet in the biblical sense. You should automatically be skeptical of a self-professed prophet. And one of the reasons you should be skeptical is because we know that false prophets exist today. In fact we're warned against false prophets in Scripture, 1 John 4, 1. John writes, 11, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. You think there aren't any more false prophets in the world? They're all over the place. And if you listen they'll talk to you so don't listen to them. One thing we do know according to Scripture is there are false prophets today. From John's letter we know that behind every false prophet there is a spirit and it is not the Holy Spirit. We're not to believe every spirit but we're to test the spirits whether they are of God. And we do this because many false prophets have gone out into the world. So we're to test the spirits meaning we're also to test the prophets. I believe the term prophet and prophecy is used much too loosely among certain segments of Christianity today and I can say that as a recovering charismatic. What some people today call prophecies are actually impressions. You and I get impressions about all sorts of things. All the time and we need to be careful that we are not attributing to God impressions that do not belong to Him. Like some who seem to find a devil behind every bush there are those who turn every impression into a prophetic opportunity. I feel like God is and you can complete the sentence. Having said that we can receive impressions that come from God. I believe that we must though be careful in discerning their source. How do we discern the source of our impressions. There is ample evidence that what some would call prophecy or God given impressions is actually of human origin at best or originating from spirits that would seek to deceive us. Impressions can lead astray even if well meaning. Now I believe Satan can no longer deceive the nations. But don't think that you can't be deceived because you listen to the wrong spirit, the wrong prophet, the wrong preacher, the wrong teacher. You can be. And this is why John wrote the warning he wrote in first John. Where do you use wisdom? Where do you use discernment? Even though people tell us things and they are very well meaning it does not mean in their well meaning attempt they can lead astray. Do you know the devil doesn't care how you get led astray? Whether you were led astray maliciously or through very well meaning efforts on the part of some person who wants to help you. The cults who come knocking at your door may be very well meaning because they may be sincerely deceived into believing their way as the correct way. And if you listen to them and follow them in all their well meaningness they will lead you astray. God can certainly use impressions to God and lead us and I believe he does. But impressions are not infallible and must always always always be tested by scripture. The word of God must be the final arbiter of all the decisions we may be weighing especially when we are considering impressions that we believe God may be using to guide us. In other words don't just assume. Test. Test the spirit. Test those things. We should also consult with wise Godly counselors before we act on such impressions. Proverbs 1522 instructs us that without counsel plans go arrive but in the multitude of counselors there they are established. Why should we consult wise and godly counselors if we believe our impression is from God? Well because we seek wise counsel because the word of God instructs us to and calls it wisdom when we do seek wise and godly counsel. The word of God may confirm whether an impression is based in truth or whether it's simply from our carnal mind. You have the mind of Christ but your mind is still being renewed. None of us have completely renewed minds. You won't have that I believe until this mortality puts on immortality. But your mind, your soul, the seed of your mind, your will and your emotions should be being renewed constantly. How do you do that? You do it by washing your mind with the water of the word. Yes, brainwash yourself with the word of God. That renews your mind. And your mind and my mind is going to have to be being constantly renewed because this world is constantly contaminating it. You know put on your Sunday best, Spencer raises pigs. So if you want to ever test this out you can come to our property and do this. Put on your Sunday best and then go out there and roll around with the pigs and see what your Sunday best looks like after you get through. It's not going to look like your Sunday best anymore. This is what happens as we live in the world. The world gets us dirty. The world contaminates us. Things are bombarding us constantly and if you don't believe that you have to constantly renew your mind to the truth. If you don't do that all that stuff is just staying with you. If you go roll around in the pig pin you might get dirty but guess what? Well clean up. You don't have to stay dirty. Well that's what happens when we renew our mind. It's why we should constantly be going to the world. We should constantly be washing our minds with the water of the word. Sometimes, well I don't know if this has ever happened to you but if someone came up to you and said to you that they had a word for you from the Lord for instance. You may respectfully remind them that you expect that God will speak to you through his word illuminated by his Holy Spirit that dwells in you. That person's motivation may be sincere and they may be trying to help you. You and I should trust God to lead and to guide us through his word and by his Spirit. Sincereity is not a test for the truth. This is why the word of God is so important. Scripture must be the final test coupled with wise and seasoned counsel from Godly saints. Sometimes people simply use the wrong wording to convey real care and real concern. Perhaps some Christians are simply confused or uninformed as to what God's word actually says about prophets and prophecies. The point of talking about this today is that you are not one of those confused or uninformed persons. That you are a Christian who understands where you go to find truth, where you go to find guidance, who and what is to lead you in your life. And it's not a prophet, it is the Word of God. It is the Holy Spirit that indwells you who will always lead you in accordance with this Holy and inspired Word. Go to the Word, that's where God will speak to you. He also uses people, but you Christian have the Holy Spirit which is the same Spirit that Moses or Isaiah or Daniel had working in their life. Even greater than that, you have the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. Go to the Word of God and allow the Spirit of God to lead you and to guide you and to reveal God's truth to you. He is your helper and all of this and so much more. In Ephesians 2.20, we are instructed concerning the foundation upon which we are being built up. Ephesians 2.20, Paul writes, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. That's you. You are the building that God is building up. And what is the foundation of that building? Well, the Scripture says the foundation is the apostles and the prophets. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, we are being built up upon that foundation. In other words, we are not laying the foundation again. It has been laid already. There are no longer apostles and prophets as there were in the early days of the New Testament church. God laid that foundation from days of old to the prophets of the old covenant and through the apostles and prophets in the beginning days of the New Covenant. In those early days, the canon of Scripture was still being established. But once the canon of Scripture was completed and I believe it was completed prior to 70 AD in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, God's revelation to His people was complete. Not the revelation of God, remember God's infinite. But the revelation He has chosen to give to us, the revelation we need for our salvation is complete. It's called the Word of God. So the revelation to His people is now conveyed through the Word of God, through the Holy Scriptures and it is illuminated for us by His Holy Spirit which He poured out to dwell within us. The Scripture itself confirms this. Hebrews 1 and 2, God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets. Has in these last days spoken to us by His Son whom He has appointed heir of all things through whom He also made the worlds. Who is the Son? He is the Word. John 1 verses 1 through 3. John writes, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made. The Apostle John and the writer of Hebrews both affirmed the Son as the Word of God through whom all things were made. John goes on in his Gospel account in verse 14 of chapter 1 and he says this, The Word, the very Word he spoke of in John 1, 1, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, confirming that the Word is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the living Word of God. Now we have the Word written and made flesh and we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us to illuminate the Word in us and to us, the Word written and the Word made flesh. The point of the Word, the point of the Scripture is to reveal Christ to you and Christ is revealed to you through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit you will never see Christ. The Spirit has to give you eyes to see. He has to give you ears to hear. He has to first raise you from the dead so that you can see the Son. Hear the Son and know the Son as He is revealed in this Holy book we call the Bible. Now we have the Word written and made flesh and we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us to illuminate the Word in us, written and made flesh. And in that sense as God's people with the Holy Spirit indwelling us we are all prophets proclaiming God's Word. Now that's what Moses longed for and has come true now with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Listen to Numbers 11, 29. Then Moses said to him, are you zealous from my say? Moses says this. Oh that the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them. God has indeed put his Spirit upon his people, the same Holy Spirit that worked in Moses dwells in you. In that sense we all have become prophets, recipients of God's Word, recipients of God's Spirit to make known his gospel truth and his glorious name to all nations and all peoples to the ends of the earth. And that's why the Puritans sometimes referred to preaching as prophesying. They weren't saying that the gift of prophecy was still in effect. They weren't saying that there were prophets today as there were in the old covenant and in the beginning days of the new covenant. But they were saying now God's people have received the Spirit of God. God's people have received the Word of God and we can take this Word and we can proclaim it and there is a prophetic aspect of that. So in that sense when we proclaim God's Word, when we preach God's Word, we are prophesied in that regard. That doesn't make you a prophet though who can tell the future and speak for God as you will. No, you can speak for God but make sure you're speaking from this. Make sure what you speak in the name of God lines up with the Word of God. And the only way you're going to know whether a dozen ought is to spend time in this book. You got to break it open and you got to read it. You got to wash your mind with it. The faith in the Word once delivered. Faith in the Word of God have once for all been delivered to the saints. Jude 3, beloved while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. We no longer need prophets or apostles writing or compiling God's Word. Our faith based on the completed canon of God's Word has once for all been delivered to us saints. Just as Christ suffered once for all for sins, verse Peter 3, 18, so the faith has been delivered once for all to the saints. There are no more prophets and apostles like those who God used to deliver once for all the faith and the Word of God that we now have. There are no more prophetic words that rise to the level of Scripture or inspired and fallible words from God. You and I are very fallible. And our words are very fallible. Our impressions are very fallible. And the only way we are going to know what's true and what's not true is to take it to this Word and measure it against the Word of God which is infallible. So when someone says, thus says the Lord or the Lord says, what exactly are they saying and is that Word of God infallible? Well the answer is no, it's not. This is the only infallible Word of God. And I'm not talking about the English translation of my Bible. I'm talking about God's Word as it was delivered to His prophets, to His men who wrote and recorded it. God's Word is infallible. The infallible Word we have from God is the Holy Word, the Scripture. And this is why it must be our final authority. And this is why religions like Islam that claim divine revelation complete with their own holy book are false. The same goes for Mormonism. Mormon's claim divine revelation and they hold the book of Mormon equal to if not surpassing the Bible. Mormonism uses Christian language but it is anything but Christian in its doctrine. It adds to the Word of God. And this is why Jesus said of Himself, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me, John 146. So we have the complete revelation of God given to us in Jesus Christ and His Word. The Word of God and the Spirit of God is sufficient for us and for our salvation. Today we are seeing the fall and the fall out from decades of false prophets working in many high profile churches and high profile ministries. And many high profile men and women of God have been exposed as false prophets. And many people who trusted the Word of man over the Word of God have become disillusioned in their faith because they put more trust in the man or a woman than they did in God's Word. It is a shame and it is why we must continue to go to the Word and measure all things against the Scripture as our standard and as our final authority. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our charge today is for us all but specifically I am going to charge Micah Ruthenberg today. Micah came to Taylor from Arizona as a result of his work as a contractor at Samsung and he became a member of Christ Fellowship Church, what almost two years ago. And he has truly been faithful in that membership and faithful in his obedience to Christ and to his commission. I told him yesterday at Frank and Sharon's wedding that God brought Samsung to Taylor just to get Micah here to meet Frank and subsequently Frank meet Sharon and the rest is history. I said that in Jess but it it's not untrue. Do you think Frank's salvation or chip plant is more important to God? Well the reality is they're both important and God will use both in his own way just like he used Micah and will continue to use him and us all in ways both small and great. Thus our charge. Micah's simple faithfulness to share the gospel and the Word of God with a complete stranger has had eternal consequences for more people than we know. As I charge Micah to continue in that faithfulness in his move back to Arizona I charge all of us to faithfully obey Christ, to faithfully proclaim Christ and to trust him in our obedience to seek his hand to work wonders in and through us and in the lives of others. Micah I charge you to continue blessing the body of Christ in Arizona just as you have blessed it tremendously here in Taylor Texas and at Christ Fellowship Church. You truly have been a blessing and we will sorely miss your presence here with us. Our loss is no doubt the gain of the church in Arizona. I would also charge you to not get so comfortable in your new old home that you think God could not bring you back to Taylor or that God will not send you to other parts yet unknown. You have proved your faithfulness and God is seeking such to serve him and to worship him and wherever you are God will use you for his glory. I have no doubt of that. That is true for us all. We must stay ready for God to move us not only geographically but more importantly to move us to do his work in the lives of those he divinely connects us to. Whether we intentionally make those connections or whether we are divinely and unexpectedly connected to people. The Lord bless you and keep you and use you Micah for his glory just as he did here in Taylor Texas and Christ Fellowship Church. Therefore we send you from this place to your new place to be a blessing and to glorify God. I want to pray over you and I would invite any that would like to come and pray with us and pray over Micah as we send him forth today and release him. Father we thank you for this brother. Thank you for your servant, Micah Ruthenberg. Father we anoint him today and we commission him today and we send him forth today in your will to continue to be a faithful servant of the Lord most high, to continue to be bold in his witness for Christ and the gospel that is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. And we have witnessed that power here at Christ Fellowship Church. We have a glorious testimony of how that power changed alive and only you know how you will take that changed life and this man whose life you changed and use it for future glory. So Father we thank you. We bless him from the crown of his head to the souls of his feet. We pray that you would lead and guide him every step of the way that you would open the doors that need to be open. The Father would you close the doors that need to be closed. And I thank you Father that you will keep your servant ready for whatever you have for him. Lord I know he is ready in season and out that is just who he is. And we thank you for that and we bless him and we thank you for the blessing he has been to us here. Lord the tears that are being wept right now are a testimony to the impact this man has had on our lives and we thank you for it. Thank you for the violently sending him to us. Thank you for the violently sending him out from us. Thank you for allowing us to share in his life and in his ministry. And may he know that we will continue to share in that as we continue to hold him in our hearts and to pray for him that you would be glorified to your servant. In Jesus name, amen. Praise God from the whole blessings flow. Praise him of creatures here below. And the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. The Lord be with you. The Lord bless you.