Holy Saturday Reflection - New Names in Christ

Ever since man could speak in words, he has named things, and the names given to things have had meaning. In Genesis, we read that, before man was even created, God, the Creator of all, named the light “Day” and the darkness “Night,” the firmament “Heaven,” the dry land “Earth,” and the waters “Seas” (cf. Gen 1:5-10). When God breathed into the first “Man” His breath of life – the first living soul, the first human in communion with God – God gave to Him the gift of language that man might name the creatures which God had created.

I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named (Eph 3:14-15) writes Saint Paul. Names, which are made up of words, are important in every culture. A thing is given a name for a reason, and words themselves have origins. The name Adam and the Hebrew word for man are one in the same: adamah, which means both “reddish” and “earth” and describes the complexion and substance of man.

My name, Jeffrey, comes from Geoffrey, which comes from the Germanic name Godfrey, meaning “the peace of God.” Branson, your name comes from an English surname meaning “Son of Brando;” brando comes from medieval German, derived from brand which meant “sword.” Cody, your name comes from the Gaelic Mac Oda, meaning “son of Otto.” And Ricardo, your name is the Spanish and Portuguese form of Richard, meaning “brave power;” it comes from the Germanic roots ric meaning “power” or “rule,” and hard meaning “brave” or “hardy.”

Biblical names are rich in meaning. The prophet Elijah was sent to Israel during a time when the king and his people followed many gods; the name Elijah means “the LORD is God.” Jesus’s name in Hebrew, Yehoshua, means “the LORD saves.” Several times in the Bible we read of people being given a new name by God: Abram and Sarai were renamed Abraham (“father of many”) and Sarah (“princess”) in light of their covenant with God (cf. Gen 17); Jacob was renamed Israel (“he struggles with God”) after contending with a messenger of God (cf. Gen 32:28); King David’s son Solomon was named Jedidiah (“beloved of the Lord”) in his infancy (cf. 2 Sam 12); and Simon was named Peter (“rock”) by Jesus (cf. Matt 16:18, John 1:40-42).

Paul wrote in his second letter to the church in Corinth, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come (2 Cor 5:17). It is in our baptism that we are made new – restored and refreshed – by God, who calls each of us by name. We choose a baptismal name, as well as a confirmation name, as a sign of this rebirth in Jesus Christ. We choose the name of a saint, one who set apart his or her life for God, as a sign of our earnest desire to live a holy life and be a child of God.

St. Victor of Marseilles was a 3^rd century Roman soldier who was imprisoned when he would not worship pagan idols. While awaiting execution, he converted other prisoners to Christianity. His name, a common one among early Christians, comes from the Latin word meaning “conqueror.” As a given name, it has a profound connection to Jesus Christ. St. Paul asked the Church in Rome: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Rom. 8:35, 37) Christ himself endured tribulation, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, peril, and the sword, but the Lord conquered death through them. In the book of Revelation, Jesus sends a message to seven churches; at the end of each message, he promises a reward to those who conquer: to eat from the Tree of Life, to not suffer eternal death, to taste the hidden manna, to receive power, to be dressed in white, to be a pillar of the temple of God, and to sit on his heavenly throne.

St. Peregrine Laziosi is the patron saint of cancer patients. In his youth, in the late 13^th century, St. Peregrine was staunchly opposed to the Church. During one civil disturbance, the pope sent Philip Benizi to mediate a peace; Peregrine struck St. Philip on the cheek, and St. Philip did not retaliate but rather turned his face to let Peregrine strike his other cheek. Peregrine was so overcome that he repented and entered the Church. He was ordained a priest of the Servite order, and led many people to the faith by his fervent preaching and faithful witness to the Gospel. St. Peregrine’s name means “wanderer” or “pilgrim,” and at the Second Vatican Council, the Church identified herself as “present in the world, but as a pilgrim,” recalling the words of St. Paul to the Church in Philippi: our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we also await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. In his early life, he was a wanderer and a pilgrim, but he found his home, the Church, and from then on, he was on pilgrimage to the Temple of God in Heaven.

St. David the King was an ancestor of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was the second King of Israel, beloved of God. God said of David, “I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.” (Acts 13:22) The name “David” in Hebrew means “beloved.” And yet, David was a sinner. After he caused Bathsheba’s husband to die in battle to cover up his own adultery with her, David was utterly sorrowful; moved to repentance, he wrote Psalm 51. In words which prophesy the cleansing of Baptism, St. David cried out to God: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your merciful love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. / Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! / Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. / Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” When Jesus, a Son of David, was baptized in the Jordan, the voice of the Father came out of Heaven saying “This is my beloved Son” – His “David-son”, His “beloved Son”. In Baptism, in Christ, we become beloved of God.

The first Christian saints experienced the early form of baptism and confirmation. Baptism by water in the name the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit cleanses us from our sin; Confirmation seals us with the gift of the Holy Spirit, which manifested itself as tongues of flame at Pentecost. Water and fire, often seen by philosophers as contradictory and opposing, are understood in Christianity as united symbols of cleansing and purification. In being called by the Father, you will pass through the waters of baptism and the fire of the Holy Spirit, welcomed by so great a cloud of witnesses (Heb 12:1): His Son, His Holy Spirit, His Saints, His Church.

Living the Mass

This Sunday, I will be leading an RCIA session entitled "Living the Mass". The purpose is to look at the layers of the Mass, from the spiritual to the didactic to the missionary.

How is the Mass missionary? I defer to Pope Benedict XVI:

After the blessing, the deacon or the priest dismisses the people with the words: Ite, missa est. These words help us to grasp the relationship between the Mass just celebrated and the mission of Christians in the world. In antiquity, missa simply meant "dismissal." However in Christian usage it gradually took on a deeper meaning. The word "dismissal" has come to imply a "mission." These few words succinctly express the missionary nature of the Church. The People of God might be helped to understand more clearly this essential dimension of the Church's life, taking the dismissal as a starting-point. (Sacramentum Caritatis, n. 51)

To understand the missionary layer of the Mass, one has to consider the Mass as a communion between God and man. The Mass is full of giving and receiving and "coming near to". We begin Mass "going in to the altar of God" (even if those words are not present in Ordinary Form of the Mass) in the entrance procession; we come near to God. In the Liturgy of the Word, God comes to us in His Word. Then the priest offers our bread and wine to God, who returns them to us as the Body and Blood of His Son. Then the priest offers Jesus Christ, the Divine victim, the Eucharist, to the Father; and God, through the hands of His priests (ideally...), offers Himself to us in Holy Communion. At the end of Mass, the priest gives us God's blessing, and says (ideally...) Ite, missa est! We are sent on a mission. What are we sent with? The Word of God (which we received in the Scripture), the Eucharist (which we received in Holy Communion), and God's blessing. That is sufficient for any mission.

I can see the Mass as being a portrayal of Holy Week (and beyond), encapsulating Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem through the Passion and all the way to the Ascension.

Anyone care to chime in on the spiritual and didactic layers of the Mass?

Latin: Prayers of September 14, Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

This Sunday, what would be "just another Sunday in Ordinary Time" is a feast of the Lord! September 14th is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and it falls on a Sunday this year. It also happens to be the date on which Summorum Pontificum went into effect last year, so it is the first anniversary of Pope Benedict's motu proprio which liberated the usus antiquior, the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

I will be leading an RCIA session after Mass tomorrow; the topic is "Who is Jesus?" For the opening prayer, I will use my own translation (with assistance from Fr. Z, of course) of the Collect for the Feast. Here it is as found in the 2002 Missale Romanum:

Deus,
qui Unigénitum tuum crucem subíre voluísti,
ut salvum fáceret genus humánum,
praesta, quaesumus,
ut, cuius mystérium in terra cognóvimus,
eius redemptiónis praemia in caelo cónsequi mereámur.

The ICEL translation we hear is pretty good, I must say:

God our Father, in obedience to you, your only Son accepted death on the cross for the salvation of mankind. We acknowledge the mystery of the cross on earth. May we receive the gift of redemption in heaven.

That translation fittingly supplements the Latin with the phrase "in obedience to you", tying in the Second Reading (Phil. 2:6-11) which mentions how Christ was obedient to the Father, even to death on a cross. It doesn't make the precise connection between the "mystery of the cross" and the "gift of redemption" which the Latin does, though. Here is my translation:

O God, Who willed that Your only-begotten Son should endure the cross, so that he might save the human race, grant, we pray, that we, who have come to know the mystery of the Cross on earth, may merit to attain its prize of redemption in heaven.

I like the structure of this prayer; first, take note of the phrases which are in bold. The opening clause mentions the cross and the ensuing salvation; the closing clause again mentions the cross (its mystery) and the prize of redemption. Second, note the words in red: they show the link in the Latin between the Cross and redemption. Third, note the words in green: as Christ's suffering on the Cross was earthly, and accomplishes our salvation by his offering of that sacrifice before his heavenly Father, so we come to know the mystery of the Cross on earth and only truly realize its prize of eternal salvation in heaven.

Here's the super oblata, the Prayer over the Offerings:

Haec oblátio, Dómine, quaesumus,
ab ómnibus nos purget offénsis,
quae in ara crucis totíus mundi tulit offénsam.

Here is the ICEL:

Lord, may this sacrifice once offered on the cross to take away the sins of the world now free us from our sins.

Here is my translation:

May this sacrifice, we pray, Lord, cleanse us from all sin, which on the altar of the cross took away the sins of the whole world.

I wish the ICEL translation had retained the word "altar".

And the Post-Communion prayer:

Refectióne tua sancta enutríti,
Dómine Iesu Christe, súpplices deprecámur,
ut, quos per lignum crucis vivíficae redemísti,
ad resurrectiónis glóriam perdúcas.

Here is the ICEL:

Lord Jesus Christ, you are the holy bread of life. Bring to the glory of the resurrection the people you have redeemed by the wood of the cross.

Here is my translation:

Having been nourished by your holy repast, we humbly pray, Lord Jesus Christ, that those who you redeemed by the wood of the life-giving Cross, you would lead to the glory of the resurrection.

For our closing prayer, I will use the Introit and Offertory antiphons as found in the Gradual:

Nos autem gloriari oportet, in cruce Domini nostri Iesu Christi: in quo est salus, vita, et resurrectio nostra: per quem salvati et liberati sumus.

Protege, Domine, plebem tuam, per signum sanctae Crucis, ab omnibus insidiis inimicorum omnium: ut tibi gratam exhibeamus servitutem, et acceptabile tibi fiat sacrificium nostrum.

Here's the translation I'll use, borrowing somewhat from the 1962 Saint Joseph Daily Missal my mother gave me at Christmas:

It is right that we should glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation, our life, and our resurrection, and by whom we are saved and made free.

Lord, by the sign of the Holy Cross, protect your people from every snare of every enemy, that we may offer you worthy service and our sacrifice may be acceptable to you. Amen.

And here's a YouTube video of that Entrance Antiphon... beautiful!

Faith: Pope Paul VI on the Nicene Creed

Wow. Add this Apostolic Letter of Pope Paul VI -- Solemni Hac Liturgia -- to the list of documents from the era around Vatican II that people have just plum overlooked! (Another document on that list is Pope Bl. John XXIII's Veterum Sapientia, about the importance of the Latin language in the Church and the education thereof.)

It is an aggiornamento (bringing up-to-date) of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed... in a good way. His Holiness expounds on the elements of the Creed, reinforcing the Catholic faith in a time of "disquiet which agitates certain modern quarters with regard to the faith", "in which so many certainties are being disputed". Without being "strictly speaking a dogmatic definition", it is a bold re-affirmation of so many elements of the Catholic faith.

This document should be required reading in every RCIA session around the world!

The Pope speaks of the Trinity and its Persons, Mary the Mother of God (specifically her perpetual virginity, Immaculate Conception, Assumption, and universal Motherhood), original sin, being reborn in the Holy Spirit, baptism, the Church of Jesus Christ founded on Peter and its four marks, the Word (in Scripture, Tradition, and Authority), the single Shepherd of the Church, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass being the sacramental presentation of the Sacrifice of Calvary, the transubtantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, the temporal concern of the Church, purgatory, the communion of saints, and the Resurrection.

Blessed be God Thrice Holy. Amen.

Scripture Reflection: Called by God (on Confirmation names)

Here is the reflection I gave on Holy Saturday, during the morning retreat for the RCIA candidates and catechumens. The names of the Saints selected as Confirmation names were: St. Francis for Francisco, St. Cecelia for Jenna, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton for Lindsay, and St. Patrick for John.

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I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named (Eph 3:14-15) writes Saint Paul. Ever since man could speak in words, he has named things, and the names given to things have had meaning. In Genesis, we read that, before man was even created, God, the Creator of all, named the light “Day” and the darkness “Night”, the firmament “Heaven”, the dry land “Earth”, and the waters “Seas” (cf. Gen 1:5-10). When God breathed into the first “Man” His breath of life – the first living soul, the first human in communion with God – God gave to Him the gift of language that man might name the creatures which God had created. The phrase “the Word of God” in Scriptures refers to revelation from God: [T]he word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." (Gen 15:1)

Names, which are made up of words, are important in every culture. A thing is given a name for a reason, and words themselves have origins. The name Adam and the Hebrew word for “man” are one in the same: adamah, which means both “reddish” and “earth” and describes the complexion and substance of man.

My name, Jeffrey, comes from Geoffrey, which comes from the Germanic name Godfrey, meaning “the peace of God”. Francisco, your name comes from the Latin Franciscus, which means “French-man”. Jenna, your name is a variant of Jennifer – a name in use only since the 20th century – which comes from Guinevere, the Old French rendering of the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar, meaning “fair and smooth”. Lindsay, your name is a Scottish surname, from Old English, describing a place called “Lincoln’s marsh”. And John, your name, the most Biblical of the group – with the exception of Sr. Mary, of course – comes from the Latin Iohannes, from the Greek Ioannes, which came from the Hebrew Yochanan, meaning “Yahweh is gracious”. Truly, John the Baptist, born to an aged Zechariah (“Yahweh remembers”) and his barren wife Elizabeth (“God’s promise”), was a sign of the graciousness of God to His people.

Several times in the Bible we read of people being given a new name by God: Abram and Sarai were renamed Abraham and Sarah in light of their covenant with God (cf. Gen 17), Jacob was renamed Israel after contending with a messenger of God (cf. Gen 32:28), the man we know of as Joshua son of Nun – a servant of Moses and the one who led the Israelites into the land promised to them – was born Hoshea and was named Joshua (or Yehoshua, meaning “Yahweh is salvation”) by Moses (cf. Num 13:16). King Solomon was also named Jedidiah (meaning “beloved of Yahweh”) in his infancy (cf. 2 Sam 12). The Apostle Simon was named Peter by Jesus (cf. Matt 16:18; John 1:40-42). The Pharisee Saul was named Paul after his conversion (cf. Acts 13:9).

Jesus – whose Hebrew name was the same as Joshua – was prophesied to have the name Emmanuel, “God with us”, as well as a host of other names: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isa 7:14, 9:6). Those phrases were names in Hebrew: Pele-joez, El-gibbor, Abi-ad, Sar-shalom.

Paul wrote in his second letter to the church in Corinth, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come (2 Cor 5:17). It is in our baptism that we are made new – restored and refreshed – by God, who calls each of us by name. We choose a baptismal name, as well as a confirmation name, as a sign of this rebirth in Jesus Christ. We choose the name of a saint, one who set apart his or her life for God, as a sign of our earnest desire to live a holy life and be a child of God. St. Francis of Assisi, inspired by a vision in a Crucifix, renounced his lineage and all his possessions and founded a religious order, the Franciscans. St. Cecilia, an early martyr of the Church whose name is mentioned in the first Eucharistic Prayer, praised God with her voice and with instruments. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American Saint, endured hardships and loss during her conversion to Catholicism, founded the first religious community of apostolic women in the country, the Sisters of Charity, and helped form a private charity organization – the first in New York City – dedicated to the assistance of widows with children. St. Patrick was a missionary to Ireland in the fifth century, and was recognized as Ireland’s patron only a few centuries after his death.

The first Christian saints – the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Apostles – experienced the early form of baptism and confirmation. Baptism by water in the name the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit cleanses us from our sin; Confirmation seals us with the gift of the Holy Spirit, which manifested itself as tongues of flame at Pentecost. Water and fire, often seen by philosophers as contradictory and opposing, are understood in Christianity as united symbols of cleansing and purification. In being called by the Father, you will pass through the waters of baptism and the fire of the Holy Spirit, welcomed by so great a cloud of witnesses (Heb 12:1): His Son, His Holy Spirit, His Saints, His Church.

RCIA: Prophets & Prophecy (Session #4, October 8th)

I. GOAL

A. To understand the role of prophets in God’s revelation of Himself to humanity, and to understand the language of prophecy

II. SOURCES OF INFORMATION

A. Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)

1. Prophet (Glossary)

B. Catholic Encyclopedia (CE)

1. Prophecy

2. Prophecy, Prophet, and Prophetess

C. Bible

1. Most (if not all) books of the Bible have prophetic material in them

III. PRIMARY QUESTIONS

A. What is prophecy?

1. Divine inspirations concerning what is secret, whether future or not. A Divine light by which God reveals things concerning the unknown and by which these things are in some way represented to the mind of the prophet, whose duty it is to manifest them to others. (CE)

i. In place of charms and oracles and other devices, God bestows instead the gift of prophecy

2. Content

i. Knowledge of forgotten pasts

ii. Knowledge of the hidden present

iii. Foreknowledge of future events

3. Transmission

i. Supernatural, from God

ii. Beyond the natural power of our intelligence

iii. Manifested by words and/or signs

iv. Conveyed to the intellect, the senses, or the imagination

v. The prophet was almost always awake

4. Types of prophecy

i. Perfect vs. Imperfect

a. Perfect: the prophet is sure of the thing being revealed and that it is God who is revealing it

b. Imperfect prophecy lacks one of those two characteristics (2 Samuel 7:2-5a, 13a)

ii. Denunciation, Foreknowledge, Predestination

a. Denunciation: future events that hinge upon cause-and-effect (Jonah)

b. Foreknowledge: future events that hinge upon free will, but which God sees in the present from eternity

c. Predestination: future events that are God’s infallible, unpreventable will, and which He shall cause to come about (the coming of the Messiah)

B. What is a (true) prophet?

1. One sent by God to form the people of the Old Covenant in the hope of salvation. (CCC)

i. Interpreter and herald of Yahweh whose duty is to communicate God’s will and designs to Israel

a. Preaching, foretelling, leading the people when they went astray

b. Preparing the way for the new kingdom of God ushered in by the Messiah

c. In a time of polytheism, prophets of God spoke for “Yahweh” (the name revealed to Moses), the one true God

ii. The Hebrew word is nevi, originally meaning “proclaimer” and developing into the Biblical usage of “interpreter and mouthpiece of God” (Exodus 7:1-2)

iii. Greek word prophetes comes from pro-phanai (to speak for, to speak in the name of someone)

2. No “tribe of prophets” (contrast with the Mosaic priesthood of Levi)

i. The gift of prophecy is an extraordinary grace bestowed by God on whomever He pleases

a. No preparation required, no training needed

b. Men, women, children, angels, demons, gentiles, etc.

c. Moral goodness preferred, but not necessary

ii. Prophetic message initiated by God (Jeremiah 1:2) or by prayer on the part of the prophet (Jeremiah 42:4)

iii. Prophets other than adult Hebrew males

a. Miriam, the sister of Moses

b. Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist

c. Samuel and Daniel as children

d. Balaam, a Moabite (Gentile) (Numbers 24:15-17)

e. Demons (Matthew 8:28-29)

C. What is a false prophet?

1. Either one who claims prophecy falsely, or one who reveals God in a manner contrary to the understanding revealed in Scripture. (Jeremiah 23:30-32)

2. True prophets should be virtuous, well-tempered, and in good mental health

3. True prophets should speak in conformity with Christian truth if they are inspired by the Spirit

4. True prophets should speak of things of grave and important nature, for the good of the Church or for souls in general

i. This excludes fortune-telling, crystal-gazers, etc.

5. Prophecies that make known the sins of others, or delve into predestination (of a soul’s salvation or condemnation) are suspect

i. In particular, the Day of Judgment is a secret that has never been revealed

6. Look for fulfillment of prophecy, except where the prophecy was hinged upon conditions which have changed (Jonah)

i. Consider prophecy from God which may have been misinterpreted by humans

D. Who were some of the prophets?

1. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

i. God spoke directly to Abraham (and Isaac and Jacob)

ii. God formed the covenant of circumcision with Abraham, the first physical historical covenant

2. Moses and Aaron

i. God spoke directly to Moses, manifesting Himself in such forms as a bush burning but not consumed and a pillar of smoke

ii. God reveals himself by name to Moses: Yahweh (“I am who am”)

iii. God reveals himself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob

3. Samuel and Nathan

i. Samuel was called by God as a young boy (1 Samuel 3:4-10), and his calling began the “institution” of prophets

a. Prophets did not have “schools”, nor did they “pass on” their “skill”, but prophets became main-stays and advisors to the king

ii. Nathan served King David and prophesied as well as instructed David using parables (2 Samuel 12:1-7a)

4. Elijah

i. Helped lead Israel back to God

ii. Raised a boy from the dead (1 Kings 17:17-24)

iii. Fled to Mount Horeb when Jezebel threatened his life; there he received encouragement (1 Kings 19:8b-13a) and a mission from God (1 Kings 19:13b-18)

iv. Commanded by God to anoint Elisha as his successor (1 Kings 19:16, 19-21)

5. Elisha

i. Succeeded Elijah and received a “double portion of [his] spirit” before Elijah was taken up into heaven amidst a whirlwind and a flaming chariot (2 Kings 2:9-12)

ii. Also raised a boy from the dead (2 Kings 4:32-35)

6. Major Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel

7. Minor Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah, Malachi

8. Called by God in different ways and responded differently (Amos 7:14-15; Jeremiah 1:4-5; Jonah 1:1-3a)

9. The fate of prophets…

i. All were threatened, most were killed

ii. Jesus referred to Jerusalem – and the Pharisees in particular – as the murderer of the prophets (Matthew 23:29-37)

E. What was the role of prophecy?

1. Literal and figurative meanings behind the images and words

i. Literal: 1 Kings 22:17

ii. Figurative: Jeremiah 1:11-12

iii. Literal and figurative: 2 Samuel 7:12-13

2. Usually oral instruction accompanied by symbolic gestures

i. In Jeremiah 27:2, he was prophesying God’s bondage of the Israelites under Nebuchadnezzar.

ii. Some prophecies appear to have been made exclusively to be written down

3. Preaching religion and morals, deploring idol worship and empty sacrifices; foretelling the Day of Yahweh, the Messiah, salvation, and the end of the world

F. What did they prophesy?

1. They did not just receive a mission of preaching and predicting God’s will, they were given a specific message, and all they spoke came to them by revelation and inspiration (2 Peter 1:21)

2. God’s abandonment of Israel for their wickedness and His return (Hosea)

3. God’s destruction of wicked nations if they did not repent (Jonah)

4. The new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 11:19-20, 36:26-28)

5. Obedience and love, instead of sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22; Hosea 6:6)

6. The Messiah, details of his ministry, even John the Baptist (Isaiah 9:5-6, 53:1-12; Daniel 7:13-14; Zechariah 9:9; Malachi 3)

i. Jesus Christ is understood to be the consummation of prophecy, meaning that all the prophecies were ultimately pointing to his birth, ministry, death, and resurrection, as well as his purpose in the salvation of God’s people (Matthew 13:17)

7. The Resurrection (Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2)

G. What about prophecy during the time of Christ?

1. The angel Gabriel, appearing to Mary, regarding Jesus (Luke 1:26-37)

2. Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, upon seeing Mary (Luke 1:41-45)

3. Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, upon John’s birth (Luke 1:68-79)

4. Simeon, in the temple at the presentation of Jesus (Luke 2:25-35)

5. Anna, recognizing the fulfillment of God’s promise (Luke 2:36-38)

6. John the Baptist, possessing the spirit of Elijah (Luke 3:15-16)

7. Jesus as prophet

i. As a boy in Jerusalem (Luke 2:46-49)

ii. At the start of his ministry (Luke 4:14-21; cf. Isaiah 61:1-2)

iii. About John the Baptist (Luke 7:27, cf. Malachi 3:1)

iv. He taught with an authority never known before, for the source of his teaching was not outside of him, but in him

H. Where is prophecy now?

1. The book of Revelation is the last formally acknowledged prophetic work of Divine inspiration, but the prophetic spirit has not disappeared

2. We have freedom in accepting or rejecting private or particular prophecy, but we should be slow to judge either way

i. The real litmus test is fulfillment!

IV. READING AND ACTIVITY

A. The Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53)

1. Examining the parallels between the prophecy and the ministry of Jesus