Why Do People Hate Prophets?

Christ as prophet. So we see him as king, we see him as priest, and we see him now as prophet. Well, what in the world is that? Well, let me try to sum this up for you.

Christ as king ruled us, the priest died for us, made atonement. Christ as a prophet directs us. That's what the prophetic role does.

Jesus as prophet directed our lives through his word, through his preaching. See, the teacher teaches, but the prophet preaches. There are times when Jesus would teach, but then there were times when he would warn, and he would instruct, and he would preach.

That's why people saw him as a preacher, as a prophet. There goes the prophet, because of this preaching. Basically, prophecy.

Now, there's foretelling of different things, but this is a type of what they're talking about here is he preached God's word with boldness, with clarity, and he made it clear to the people. This is the prophet who makes God's will crystal clear. Psalm 81.13, Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways.

God is saying, oh, that my people would listen to me, listen to me, listen to me. And that often, as good as Bible teaching is, that often doesn't cause people to listen. Many times you'll leave a good teaching and say, oh, that was good, that was interesting, I didn't know that about the Hebrew.

I didn't know that about Semitic times there, and science, and how that, that's pretty cool, that's interesting. And we need it, we need a plethora of teaching, because that's how we're instructed. But the time comes when, like God says, oh, that my people would listen to me and walk in my ways.

The way to get people to listen is you shock them. You shock them with the truth. That's what Jesus said.

No man ever spoke like this man with the authority of God. He preached to the people. That was that prophetic role.

And last night reading Whitfield's journals, I was reminded of this. All of England, by the time he was 21, he was the best known preacher in all of England. By age 22, all of England hated him.

If you're going to preach repentance, you had better pledge your head to heaven. Look at John the Baptist. Look at Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel.

I mean, we love these guys, we read their books. It was said that Isaiah was sawn in two by wicked King Manasseh. Jeremiah, stoned by his own people.

Ezekiel, stoned by the leaders who brought the children of Israel out of exile. They were killed by their own people. Even the minor prophets, Hosea, Joel, some of them lived, but others were killed by their own people.

That's why Jesus said, you sons of hell, your fathers killed the prophets, and you make them nice tombs. You are hypocrites. That's preaching.

That's the truth of God's word penetrating the heart. God's voice is not popular. God's voice is not popular in our culture.

Have you noticed that? God's voice is not popular in our culture. Even Elisha, when he came on and he challenged wicked King Ahab, Ahab said, oh, you troubler of Israel. So this prophet of God called by God is now called the troubler of Israel.

And I wonder how soon they're going to say, oh, Shane, you troubler of America. I mean, that's what the culture looks like. What is this? We don't want this.

The prophetic element of Jesus is probably God. I'm going to be careful here, but that's probably what got him killed. Yes, it was God's sovereignty and God from the foundation of the world, but it wasn't because he's a good teacher.

It's because he challenged people. The religious leader said, look, the whole world is following him, and Jesus rebuked them and rebuked them. You whitewashed tombs.

You lead people to hell. And he just would just tell them the truth, because that's the role of the prophetic, hopefully, is to cause it. The religious leader should have said, you know what? You're right.

You're right. We need John the Baptist's ministry. We should have went to the Jordan River and been baptized instead of stood there like this.

And John said, you brood of vipers, who warns you to flee from the wrath that is to come. Bear fruits worthy of repentance. So John the Baptist preached repentance, and he was beheaded.

Jesus was crucified. That's how important this topic is. Actually, I pulled this up an hour before the sermon.

I said, Lord, if you want me to read this, just remind me. This would be good, I think, for some people. This is by A.W. Tozer.

This will help explain some of what's going on. If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation, it must be by other means that are now being used. If the church in the second half of the century, and he's writing 60 years ago, is to recover from the injury she suffered the first half, then there must appear a new type of preacher.

The proper rule of the synagogue type will never do. Neither will the priestly type of man who carries out his duties takes his pay and asks no questions. Nor is the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone.

All these have been tried and found wanting. Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be one of the old prophet types, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the throne.

When he comes, and I pray there are many, he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear. He will contradict, he will denounce, he will protest in the name of God, and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christianity. Such a man is likely to be lean, rugged, blunt-spoken, and a little bit angry with the world.

He will love Christ and the souls of men to the point of willingness to die for the glory of the one and the salvation of the other. But he will fear nothing that breathes with mortal breath. That's what he's talking about, Jesus here, too.

That's the prophetic. Jesus perfectly fits that. He comes on the scene, the priestly type didn't do, this is what the church needed to start, and this is what the church will need to be awakened.

That prophetic type preaching. And on this note, too, with A.W. Tozer, you guys, you should read some of his writings. But when he was a young pastor, he came to a friend of his, and he said, I want to live for Christ more than anybody ever has in my generation.

And his friend said, Brother Tozer, if you're true about what you say, let me give you a word of caution. Be prepared to suffer greatly. Because when you follow God with all your heart, you will lose friendships.

Why don't you drink this and eat this and go here and watch this? It becomes a very lonely life sometimes. The heart after God. Because a lot of people don't want to fall in that direction.

And that's what is needed, though, is that heart to be on fire for God. And it is a lonely life, but that's why we draw close to him sometimes. And I don't want people to go, oh, wow, really, that was uplifting.

But listen, our nation is on more medication than ever before. We're depressed more than ever before. We've got a thousand friends on Facebook, but we're just as lonely.

But I'm telling you to seek the true source of life. Come to me, all who are weak and heavy laden. I will give you rest.

This is the water. Drink of me and you will never thirst again. That's living water.

So here's today's application. Follow God despite the cost, but make sure that love and humility are leading. The reason I put that in there is because I don't want people to say, well, I'm following all these rules.

No, following God has a cost. Jesus said, pick up your cross and follow me. That might mean, and people don't like this.

I don't know if any of you, well, I think a few people have done it. But people who are struggling with certain addictions or struggling with certain things, I say delete Facebook for the next two weeks. Just delete it.

Turn your phone off. Oh, man, I can't do that. I mean, these guys are my friends.

They're taking you back into a lifestyle that's hurting you. They're taking you back to a lifestyle that's away from God. How is that friends? That's not called friends.

That's called influences. And misery loves company. But following God means you will live differently.

And people won't like you. I mean, I get invited to potlucks. Well, I know you're not going to eat that.

Right? You know, it's all this fat. Hey, don't be convicted. Eat whatever you want.

But just living that way, or I know there's so many Christian friends who don't invite us to things because they're going to have a lot of alcohol there. Let's not invite paths for shame. No, we can't have fun.

I mean, because you're walking, you're trying to follow God, and you're excluded from things. But if He's everything, if He's an all-sufficient Savior, then we can rest in His promises and rest in seeking Him with all of our heart. We can be satisfied that way.

Yes, the world is depressing. It's hard sometimes. But I've never seen anybody go wrong by seeking God with all their heart, with all their strength, and with all their might.