Commentary on Acts 13:1

By Bob Myhan

¹Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

During the Old Testament period God had prophets in Israel both before and after the kingdom divided. The first in the long line of prophets during this period was Samuel, who was also the last of the judges.

“Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.' To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities."  (Acts 3:24-26)

Peter describes the Old Testament prophets thus:

And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:19-21)

Elijah and Elisha were the primary prophets sent to Israel during the divided kingdom period. Both worked many miracles in order to confirm their respective messages as the word of God. They both raised the dead. Elisha even did so posthumously. One man came back to life after his dead body fell against the bones of Elisha. Elijah was one of two men who left earth never having died. The other was Enoch, the father of Methuselah. Enoch is also identified as one who prophesied. (Jude 14-15) Another prophet in the north was Hosea, commanded by God to marry a harlot.

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel were prophets in Judah. Isaiah is called the messianic prophet because of the wealth of prophecies concerning the Messiah. Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet because he felt deeply about the coming captivity. Ezekiel and Daniel actually went into captivity during their respective ministries.

Most of the Old Testament prophets had long ministries but they were killed by their own people, who refused to repent. Josiah, the boy king, probably did more to restore the unadulterated worship of God to Judah than most kings before him but it was too late. God had already revealed His intention to punish Judah for their idolatry.

By contrast, the New Testament prophets did not have long ministries. Most of them only prophesied in congregations where they were members. Only a few such as Agabus are even identified by name. They prophetic gift was received from the Holy Spirit by the laying on of apostles’ hands. Like other miraculous spiritual gifts it only lasted some forty to seventy years, depending on the date of the writing of the book of Revelation.

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ-- from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. (Eph. 4:11-16)

Such spiritual gifts were needed while the New Testament was being written. But by the time the apostles and those on whom they laid their hands died the New Testament was complete and the gifts were no longer needed.

(To be continued)

A Study of the Holy Spirit (Part 4)

By Bob Myhan 

The members of the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—had the same respective roles in the spiritual creation, the church, as they did in the physical creation. The Father initiated His eternal purpose by planning it; the Son executed it by providing the facts of the gospel; and the Holy Spirit completed it by organizing the facts into a cohesive whole in the minds of the apostles, and enabling them to proclaim the gospel and confirm it as truth.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth--in Him.

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.... To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. (Eph. 1:3-14; 3:8-12)

“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” (John 16:13)

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. (1 Cor. 2:9-12; See also Acts 2:1-36)

While miraculous elements were, of necessity, involved in conversion in the first century, such is now accomplished according to laws of spiritual reproduction.

“The seed [of the kingdom] is the word of God.” (Luke 8:11) The soil is the human heart. (Luke 17:21) Thus, the seed of the kingdom must be “sown in the heart” (Matt. 13:18-23). This does not necessitate a direct operation of the Holy Spirit, because we now have the written word of God. It is all that is necessary for the continuation of the kingdom/church of our Lord.

In fact, the word of God is all that is needed for “the man of God” to “be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

Thus, the Holy Spirit continues His work by means of the fully revealed, fully confirmed and fully preserved word of God.

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because "All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, But the word of the LORD endures forever." Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:22-25)

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. (Jude 3)  

There is nothing more to be done in one after he becomes a Christian than can be done by the word of God.

(To be continued)