New Testament Prophets

Oh, this is the fourth in a series on the gift of prophecy, and that word gift is a metaphor.

It's a way of speaking to help us understand the idea of a person being gifted.

It's a common term we use today, gifted with talents, gifted with abilities, gifted in preparation for spiritual tasks.

And one of those gifts, there's been, I think, in a previous series on Corinthians, we spent quite some time on spiritual gifts, especially chapter 12.

But in this quarter's lessons, the focus is on the gift of prophecy, which is one of these spiritual gifts.

So this week's lesson examines the gift of prophecy in the New Testament.

Last time, we looked at the Old Testament passages regarding prophets and prophecies.

But among the topics that we are covering this time is how prophets functioned in the New Testament, the difference between apostles and prophets, and the danger of false prophets.

So as you're thinking about this idea, the difference between apostles and prophets, we will get right to it and begin number two with 1 Corinthians 12, one of those spiritual gifts texts, 1 Corinthians 12:28.

And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues.

What I want you to notice there is that there are two gifts mentioned, which we may not really know what's the difference between them.

One is apostle, and the other is prophet.

In many ways, we might think of them as the same thing, but there's two separate gifts listed here.

So the question I have for you to think about, and we'll go deeper into it as we get into the lesson, but based on what you know in the past, based on your own research, your reading of the Bible, is there a difference between apostles and prophets? And if so, what would that be? Any thoughts on that? Are they essentially two different ways of describing the same thing? But they're two separate gifts here, so evidently the author of 1 Corinthians must think there's some distinction between them.

Bob?

Is there any place where they're defined? It seems, because there was a time in the New Testament when Judas was replaced by a vote, it looked like, and then Paul, I don't think he got voted in, but he was considered.

You start out saying, is it kind of a, it's not a legalistic thing, so how do you know what the definition is? Because you almost have to start with that to say who fits that.

I'm thinking, at least.

I like that line of thinking.

You're probing the idea, would a distinction possibly be that prophets are called by God directly, and apostles are elected or appointed? Okay, we'll lay that out as a hypothesis and see where the evidence takes us.

Any other thoughts? Since they're two separate gifts, there must be some distinction between them.

And of course, Bob asks, are they further defined in the New Testament? And we'll look at the evidence as we go along and see what we can find.

Rita?

Rita?Apostle, I understand, is from the Greek word that means to be sent out.

So these are people who are sent out to do a specific work or spread a specific message, whereas a prophet is one who speaks.