What 'Signs' Means

'Signs' weren't just random miraculous novelties given in order to make people think that the gospel of the kingdom must have been true.

Signs had that function, yes - but they had that function because they were actual expressions 'of' the kingdom of God itself. 

According to Israel's promises and prophecies in the Old Testament, forgiveness of sins, healing and health, the outpouring of the Spirit and seeing visions and prophesying were always going to be part of Messiah's kingdom. 

So when those very things - which were to be the stuff of the kingdom itself - accompanied the Apostles' claim that the kingdom had come among them, it meant the kingdom really had come among them, and therefore the Apostles' claim about the kingdom was obviously true. 

Like, warmer weather and new sprouts on trees are 'signs' of Summer - not because they point 'to' Summer, but because they 'are' what Summer 'is'. 

So if we say that signs have ceased, that would really mean the kingdom has ceased. And that would mean the gospel has ceased, because the gospel is the gospel 'of the kingdom'. At least in part. 

It would mean that some of the intrinsic nature of the kingdom itself - some of the good news about the kingdom - some of the prophesied and promised story - has been subtracted from.

It wouldn't just mean that only something external to the kingdom but not intrinsically part of the kingdom has been removed - as if like pulling-down a mere road-sign which had pointed in the direction of a city. 

It would mean that part of the character of the kingdom - and part of the message about it - has been altered. 

Consider this quote from George Eldon Ladd, in his ‘A Theology of the New Testament’: 

“The presence of the messianic salvation is also seen in Jesus' miracles of healing, for which the Greek word meaning "to save" is used. The presence of the Kingdom of God in Jesus meant deliverance from hemorrhage (Mk 5:34), blindness (Mk 10:52), demon possession (Lk 8:36), and even death itself (Mk 5:23). Jesus claimed that these deliverances were evidences of the presence of the messianic salvation (Mt 11:4-5). They were pledges of the life of the eschatological Kingdom that will finally mean immortality for the body. The Kingdom of God is concerned not only with people’s souls but with the salvation of the whole person.”

We Can Take the Initiative in Making Ourselves Available to Receive a Gift of Prophecy

I was invited to share a testimony one afternoon in a meeting in Sydney. 

After the meeting a young man approached me and asked me to prophesy to him.

I didn't know him. I'd never spoken to him before. I didn't know anything about him. 

And I didn't feel I had a word for him. I felt nothing at all.

I wasn't even sure how I felt about anyone approaching someone for a word like that.

I wondered whether we're better to carry-on living by the Word without seeking-out a word through someone else - and just leave it up to God to grant a manifestation of the gift of prophecy as He wills.

I didn't want to presume upon God!

But I could see the young man was so earnest and sincere. So I thought I could at least consciously make myself available to God for anything He might want to give me to say.

So I stretched out my hands towards the young man. And as soon as I did so, the Spirit of the Lord gave me something. 

I told the young man that I could 'see' him going to Russia. 

Then he told me that he'd been invited to head-up his denomination's church-planting work - in Russia!

So he asked whether I had anything else. 

I didn't have anything else - and I was again a bit taken-aback by his boldness. I still felt a bit conscientious, wanting to avoid presumptuousness. 

But then I 'saw' something else: I saw a lady coming alongside him. 

"What does she look like?" he asked.

Then I saw that she was fairly tall: just a little bit shorter than him. 

"What colour hair does she have?" he was very bold. 

Then I saw that she had light-brown hair, and that it was about shoulder-length, and straight. 

Everything the young man asked, the Lord answered - the Lord didn't seem to mind at all! I was just an available channel. 

"That's exactly the confirmation I've been desiring," the young man said. 

And with that he happily and eagerly went on his way. 

That night we were back for another meeting. The young man approached me again - and this time he had a lovely lady by his side. 

"Does this look like the lady you saw in your vision?" he smiled.

She was fairly tall - just a bit shorter than him - with nice shoulder-length, straight, light-brown hair.

"I would like to introduce you to my fiancée," he said.

____________

"...desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy...

...Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church...

...covet to prophesy..." - I Corinthians 14:1,12,39

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"...this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us: 

And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him" - I John 5:14,15
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"God is more eager to answer than we are to ask" - Smith Wigglesworth

On House Church Movements

A house-church will probably only succeed longterm in Australia to the extent that it resembles a normal church. With gifted, recognised, ordained pastors not just soul-winners or teachers, not just lay-led; has a consistent meeting-place & time & is well-rounded & just as large.

The Exile and Redemption Pattern

With Adam the pattern was:

A command + blessing = multiplication
Failure
God made them coats of skins
 → exile.

With Abraham the pattern was:
A promise (because Sarah was barren) + blessing = multiplication
Abraham & Sarah went into Egypt and out again (prefiguring what his descendants would do)
He was willing to offer Isaac
Increased promise

With Israel the pattern was:

Exile
Passover
The Law + blessing = multiplication (but the problem was internal)
(They were still custodians of the promise.)
Exile again
Hope of truer redemption

With Christ the pattern was:

Brought out of Egypt
Suffered for us (our passover)
Rose again
Procured the promise
Blesses all nations

With believers (Paul and others and Christ as our examples) the pattern is:

Redeemed out of the the world, sin, the law and death
Blessed
But it's by faith, by promise, not by works (law)
And that means there's waiting, hoping - even suffering
And then culmination and resurrection at the Second Coming

It was of the promise, not of the flesh, because Sarah had been barren - so it was not through natural ability but dependent on what God would do. So instead of working, we simply believe, rest, receive and give thanks and glory to God!

Israel - Collective, or Individuals - in Romans 11?

When Paul talks about Israel as "them", seemingly collectively, in Romans 11, to our modern ears it may sound like he's talking about the possibility of Israel as a whole doing something nationally.

But that could be because in our developed Western countries we tend to go out, get in our cars and drive across town to connect with people selectively and quite individually. Our closest relationships aren't necessarily in our own households, or with our neighbours or in our suburbs. We might pass a couple of churches on our way to the church we go to. We might commute to a different city everyday to work.

In ancient times things happened more in localised, regionalised blocks, even among Gentiles. But especially with regard to Jews, Paul as first-century Jew would have been accustomed to thinking about the nation of the Jews ethnically and covenantally.  Especially in his discussion about election, in Romans. A subject in discussion was that the nation of Israel had been chosen.

So Paul was stating that it was still possible for Jews - 'them' - to get saved. But that mightn't necessarily mean he was forecasting a future nationwide salvation - because he was talking about a present-possibility - relevant to the congregation at Rome in the first century AD.

"...that I might by all means save some..." Paul said elsewhere. 

An Hypothesis About Ezekiel's Temple

This is just a thought to be tested: not a conclusion. 

Moses & David were both shown the pattern of the tabernacle/temple in a vision by the Spirit - but when the tabernacle & temple were built, they didn't both look exactly the same as the other. 

Assuming Moses and David were both shown the same pattern (which admittedly may or may not have been the case), it could mean that what was shown in vision-form may or may not necessarily have been exactly what a tabernacle or temple should look like after one was actually built. 

So, Ezekiel's vision of a temple may or may not have meant that a temple, after it was built, could only look one way. 

After all, Ezekiel only described his vision - unlike Moses and David who didn't describe their vision but rather, beyond that, they gave plain instructions about how the tabernacle or temple should be built. Moses even gave those instructions in straight prose. Moses was given those building-instructions by God, in addition to just being shown a vision. Then he gave those instructions to the people. But he didn't tell them all about the vision he'd seen. Ezekiel on the other hand didn't say that in addition to seeing a vision he was also given instructions to give to the Jews concerning the temple they were to build: Ezekiel only described what he saw, and no more. Except to say that the vision he was telling the Jews about was intended to inspire them to take courage and rebuild a temple and get the Levitical system up and running again. Which they did.

Moses and David both gave specific building-instructions. Ezekiel didn't do that: he merely described his vision. Moses and David didn't describe their visions. And it is the nature of visions that they might or might not require a certain amount of interpretation. But direct building-instructions don't require interpretation in the same way that a vision might. 

We do know a temple was built, following Ezekiel sharing his vision. We don't know what it looked like. So we can't measure what was built, with certainty against what Ezekiel described seeing in his vision. We can't do that.

But it probably didn't look quite as grandiose as what Ezekiel saw in his vision. But it might or might not have been necessary to see a temple built to a description exactly fitting Ezekiel's vision, in order to say that the intent for which Ezekiel described his vision to the Jews of the captivity period had been carried out.

Other details in Ezekiel's prophecies had more transcending implications. Like God's presence and throne coming to dwell with Israel forever and ever. And a river bringing death to life all over the world. Statements like that in Ezekiel fuelled a yearning in Jews of the inter-testament period for more. It was like the captivity wasn't yet fully over. 

It was in a world where Israel had that yearning, that the gospel began.

Notes About the Church in Prophecy by John Visser

The following was written by John Visser, in response to Dispensationalism:

The Bible says that the church was prophesied. Peter, when speaking to the Jews on Solomon's Portico, told them that "all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days." (Acts 3:24) Which days? The days of Jesus, the Messiah. It is more than just Jesus life since it includes the time he is in heaven waiting for the 2nd coming (vs21) and the days all the people on the earth would be blessed by Abraham’s offspring (vs25). It is not "those" days, but "these" days, the days Peter was living in, the church age.

On Pentecost, when the church age began, the disciples received the Holy Spirit. Peter said that the prophet Joel had foretold this (Joel 2:28-32, Acts 2:16-21).  

The prophets foretold that Jesus would ascend and sit at the right hand of God during the church age and not live here on earth. Acts 2:33-35 quotes Psalm 110.1 saying "33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand 35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” Acts 3:21 also says that Jesus must remain in heaven.
The prophets foretold the new covenant. Hebrews 8:6-13 quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34 and says that the new covenant is now in effect. Jesus implemented it at the Last Supper (Luke 22:20).

The prophets foretold that the gentiles would believe in God. Acts 26:23 says Christ would proclaim light to the Jews and the gentiles. See Isaiah 42:5-9 and Luke 4:18,19. Romans 15:8-12 quotes II Samuel 22:50, Psalm 18:49, Deuteronomy 32:43, Psalm 117:1 to support saying that the gentiles may glorify God for his mercy. The Jews were a light to the gentiles (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6, Acts 13:46,47; 26:22,23). Galatians 3:8 says "Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: 'All nations will be blessed through you.' " Hosea foretold that a people, the gentiles, who were not God's people would become His people (Hosea 1:10, Romans 9:25,26, I Peter 2:10).

These are the last days (Acts 2:17, Hebrews 1:2, James 5:3, I Peter 1:20) spoken of by the prophets (Daniel 10:14, Joel 2:28). At the Council at Jerusalem James quotes Amos 9:11,12 to show that the conversion of the gentiles had been foretold.

Song of Solomon is generally taken to refer in some way to Christ and his bride, the church.  

There is an interesting quote in Hebrews 2:12 - "Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee." (KJV) This is a quote from Psalm 22:18 a prophecy about Jesus and his death. The word church here is usually translated assembly or congregation but is the Greek word ekklesia which is usually interpreted church. The word in Psalms is also ekklesia in the Septuagint. In it Jesus speaks of his brethren and the congregation. In Hebrews 2:10 and 11 it can be seen that they refer to Jesus' brothers, sons brought to glory and those made holy, i.e., the church. Thus, we have a prophecy in Psalms of Jesus praising God in the church.  

So, although the church is not clearly taught in the old testament, Just as Jesus' two comings were not clearly taught, the characteristics of the church are laid out in the old testament.