Daily Scripture Reading Acts 11:27 - 12:17
There is much debate and misunderstanding about prophecy in the church today. Many people believe the gift of prophecy still exists while others do not. There are pastors who claim they are prophesying when they preach a sermon on Sunday morning, but others do not have that belief
We will read a brief story today about a prophet named Agabus. His prophetic message recorded in Acts 11 gives us insight into the Biblical and correct definition of prophecy.
At the end of yesterday’s reading, we read that believers had scattered up and down the entire length of the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Furthermore, some were intentionally sharing the good news of Jesus with the Greeks. Large numbers of people turned to the Lord. Barnabas and Saul went to Antioch and spent a year there meeting with the church and teaching.
Acts 11:27 ¶ Now in those days, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.
Take note of the word “prophets”. We’ll come back to that in the next verse.
Notice the word “down”. Antioch is north of Jerusalem, so we normally think one would travel up to Antioch from Jerusalem, not down. However, in the Jewish mindset, going to Jerusalem was always going up and going away from Jerusalem was always going down.
It was about 300 miles / 500 km from Jerusalem to Antioch. It would have taken at least 10 days to travel that far by land. They may have traveled by boat.
Acts 11:28 And one of them named Agabus stood up and indicated by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine all over the world. And this took place in the reign of Claudius.
The pronoun “them” refers to the prophets mentioned in verse 27. Agabus was a prophet. God used Agabus to inform the church there would be a famine all over the world. According to the last sentence of this verse, the famine took place in the reign of Claudius.
There is much confusion in Christianity about the definition of a prophet. Many pastors claim they are being a prophet when they preach a sermon.
However, the activity of prophets we see recorded in the Bible is very different from preaching sermons. Agabus did not predict a famine based on scripture, prior experience, or history. Instead, the Spirit informed him the famine would take place.
Here is an illustration to help understand the Biblical concept of a prophet.
Imagine two brothers are playing at the playground. Around 5pm, the older brother says to the younger brother, “It is soon supper time, Dad probably wants us to go home now.” The older brother’s suggestion is based on prior experience and drawing an intelligent conclusion about what their father would probably want them to do. This is what preachers do when they preach. They use the Bible to draw intelligent conclusions about what God wants people to do and think. However, that is not what prophets did.
Now imagine the older brother goes home, but the younger brother stays at the playground. When the older brother gets home, his Dad sends him back to the playground to tell his younger brother to come home. When the older brother gets back to the playground he says to his younger brother, “Dad says it is time to come home.” This time, the older brother is not speaking on his own initiative or exercising authority over the younger son, he is simply delivering a command from the father to the younger son. That is what prophets did. They delivered messages from Yahweh to humans.
Agabus did not use scripture or history to draw the conclusion there was going to be a famine. Instead, the Spirit informed Agabus there was going to be a famine and then Agabus delivered that message to the church in Antioch.
Preaching a sermon is not prophecy. Preaching a sermon is formulating a message based on messages received from God in the past. Prophecy was delivering new messages from Yahweh to humans.
Acts 11:29 And as any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the service of the brothers living in Judea.
Judea was the region surrounding Jerusalem. At that time, Jerusalem was the center of the church.
Acts 11:30 And this they did, sending it in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders.
Acts 12:1 ¶ Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to harm them.
The text does not tell us where this took place. I assume it was in Jerusalem.
Acts 12:2 And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword.
James and John are mentioned many times in the gospels. They were both part of the twelve. Furthermore, both of them were part of the threesome, along with Peter, who formed the inner circle within the twelve. James was the first of the twelve apostles to be martyred.
Acts 12:3 And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread.
Acts 12:4 When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people.
Acts 12:5 So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.
Acts 12:6 ¶ Now on the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison.
Acts 12:7 And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, “Rise up quickly.” And his chains fell off his hands.
Acts 12:8 And the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your garment around yourself and follow me.”
Acts 12:9 And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but was thinking he was seeing a vision.
Acts 12:10 And when they had passed the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.
Acts 12:11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now truly I know that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”
Acts 12:12 And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.
Acts 12:13 And when he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer.
Acts 12:14 And when she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her joy she did not open the gate. But she ran in and reported that Peter was standing in front of the gate.
Acts 12:15 And they said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she kept insisting that it was so. They kept saying, “It is his angel.”
Acts 12:16 But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the door, they saw him and were astounded.
Acts 12:17 But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he recounted to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison. And he said, “Report these things to James and the brothers.” Then he left and went to another place.
The James mentioned in this verse is probably James the brother of Jesus, not James the brother of John, since the brother of John was already dead.
What has been your belief about the definition of a prophet, whether preaching is prophesy, and if prophesy still exists today?
What does your church teach and model regarding the concept of prophecy?
How does the prophetic activity of Agabus confirm or contradict your current beliefs regarding prophecy?
How does the account of Agabus confirm or contradict your church regarding the topic of prophecy?
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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”