One important word we have all been introduced to since technology flooded the world is the word “authenticate.” We are often asked to authenticate our identity when changing passwords so that an organization can be sure that we have the authority to make the change. Authenticity guarantees identity, and identity guarantees authority.

Webster’s defines “authenticate” this way: “to prove or serve to prove to be real, true, or genuine.”

Dual authentication confirms identity with more certainty than single authentication. How much more certain then, would a 6-way authentication be in identifying someone!? This article will attempt to show that Jesus Christ can be authenticated at least 6 different ways as having the identity and the authority of a prophet sent from God who speaks for God.

If Jesus’ words can truly be given the authority of a prophet, he must first be authenticated as having the identity of a prophet. Moses tells us exactly how that should be done in an important passage of OT scripture in Deuteronomy 18:15-22 (NLT).

Moses continued, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. For this is what you yourselves requested of the Lord your God when you were assembled at Mount Sinai. You said, ‘Don’t let us hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore or see this blazing fire, for we will die.’

“Then the Lord said to me, ‘What they have said is right. I will raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him. I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to the messages the prophet proclaims on my behalf. But any prophet who falsely claims to speak in my name or who speaks in the name of another god must die.’

“But you may wonder, ‘How will we know whether or not a prophecy is from the Lord?’ If the prophet speaks in the Lord’s name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the Lord did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared.”

Moses is telling us that if a prophet claims to speak for Jehovah, the God of Israel, and if that prophet’s predictions all come true just as he spoke them, then that prophet has been “authenticated” as a prophet of the God of Abraham and must be believed and heeded. The warning we see in the middle of the 2nd paragraph means that severe consequences always await one who ignores the words of a recognized prophet of God!

We know that Jesus fulfilled about 100 OT prophecies of the Messiah during His first coming, but did Christ Himself ever make any predictive prophecies that can be documented as having come true in the pages of history? The answer is, of course, YES! MANY! One author shows 17 prophecies Christ made that were all fulfilled within 40 years of His death: https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_1349.cfm

For this article, we will just look at six that have already been fulfilled. They are these:

1 – He predicted His death.

2 – He predicted His resurrection.

3 – He predicted the destruction of the Second Temple.

4 – He predicted the persecution of His followers.

5 – He predicted the coming “Diaspora” of the Jewish people.

6 – He predicted the spread of the gospel.

Our ears today have heard these six so often that we take them for granted. But before we examine these, try to put on the ears of the disciples as you hear them spoken to men who could barely conceive of any of these predictions ever coming true!

1 – His Death:

“He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31).

This prophecy must have sounded fantastical to the 12 disciples of Christ! By the end of His life, the disciples had come to believe that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and, as such, could not be killed by mere men. Yet, Jesus stated it three separate times in the gospels, and it occurred just as He said!

2 – His Resurrection:

“From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day” (Matthew 16:21).

This prophecy was as stunning to the disciples as His prediction of His death! Yet Jesus made this prediction more than 3 times, and it came true just as he had spoken it.

3 – The Destruction of the Second Temple

“Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. ‘Do you see all these things?’ he asked. ‘Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down'” (Matthew 24:1, 2).

This announcement would have sounded much more shocking to His disciples than we might think. When Jeremiah predicted a similar destruction of the First Temple 600 years before, the people scorned him, believing that God would never allow such a thing to happen to His own house where His Spirit lived! But it happened. Now, 600 years later, that lesson had been forgotten, and the men of Jesus’ day felt the same.

Nevertheless, in 70 A.D., just 40 years after Christ predicted it, the 2nd Temple was destroyed by the Romans, who even toppled the stones off each other looking for hidden gold. (Note: the “Western Wall” still standing in Jerusalem today was not actually a wall of the original 2nd Temple, but rather a retaining wall, so Jesus’ prediction was fulfilled in detail.)

4 – Persecution for Believers:

“An hour is coming that everyone who kills you will think they are offering service to God. And they will do these things because they do not know the Father or me. But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you about them” (John 16:2-4).

Although specifically spoken to the Jewish disciples, this prophecy could certainly be applied to Gentile believers in Christ since then until now. Matthew 10:16-17 foretells such persecution as well. It has all come true in every century from the first until today.

5 – He predicted the “Diaspora”

“And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

This prediction had to have been especially horrific for the disciples to contemplate! Not just the Temple, or even Jerusalem, but now the entire nation will be destroyed and scattered throughout the entire world?! Unthinkable! Impossible! Yet it all happened, just as Jesus spoke it.

6 – The spread of the gospel:

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

The first-century disciples had not even completed the mission of spreading the gospel message to all of Israel, let alone the Middle East. Now Jesus tells them that the message He is entrusting to them must go to every nation on the face of the earth!? This would have been more than incredible to the 11 remaining disciples; it would have been inconceivable because they had no idea how vast the earth even was! Yet here we are 2,000 years later, and this prediction is on the verge of also coming true, just as Jesus said it would!

So we have just seen that Jesus passes the biblical test of a prophet completely and clearly. His predictions all came true just as he first spoke them. Jesus has been authenticated 6 times in these pages alone. But this article is not meant to just inform or provoke thought. Here is how I personally plan to use this information…

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A – Ask your unbelieving friends how many times a person’s identity needs to be authenticated before he should be believed.

B – Tell them that Jesus’ role as a prophet can be repeatedly authenticated by the fulfillment of the prophecies He made. (You may want to add that among all of the founders of all the great world religions, not one of them ever made a single predictive prophecy that has already been fulfilled!)

C – Suggest to them that they may want to read the words of Jesus for themselves to see what else He has predicted about the future. They don’t have to believe that Christ is God, the Son of God, or even the Messiah; just read His words as an authenticated prophet of GOD.

D – Remind them that authenticity guarantees identity and identity guarantees authority; therefore, if they ignore Jesus’ words, God has said He will “personally deal with anyone who will not listen to the messages the prophet proclaims.”

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“Prophet, Priest and King”! Only the true Messiah of God was meant to hold all three offices, and He does, as we have seen here again today. Thank you for reading through. I hope this brief examination of Jesus as the “Prophet of God” has given you another tool to use in forwarding the Great Commission. May God multiply and prosper your efforts as you proclaim Him!

 

Jesus said one of the signs of the end times is the love of many growing cold. We are rapidly approaching a time when many brothers and sisters in the Lord will offend, betray, and hate one another. This is a call for true unity and genuine love among believers when love grows cold, Matthew 24:10-12.

We witness love and human kindness growing cold everywhere in our time, from business to education and family relationships. The internet and social media have brought many benefits to society. Yet, they have also unmasked the malice formerly hidden in our hearts. Collectively, we say and type hateful things about one another we’d never dreamed of just a few decades ago. The fact that love in the world is growing cold isn’t a surprise. What is surprising is the same level of coldness is invading Christians and churches. This diminishing love for one another contradicts our claim to be disciples of Jesus, John 13:35.

There is authentic biblical unity among true believers. It is rooted in the centrality of Jesus, sound doctrine, and mutual love. Before we continue, I want to mention the idea of unity at all costs. There’s also false unity that masquerades as true Christian fellowship. Oftentimes, it is cloaked in ecumenism, common goals, and shared values under the banner of love or Jesus’ name. But it’s not authentic love or unity if not rooted in the truth, Philippians 1:9.

This isn’t a blanket statement, but many fellowships and Christians are proof of love growing cold in these last days. Individually, our callous indifference toward other Christians shows our lack of love. We hear about a fellow Christian in material need. We can meet it but decide to be generous with our words, not our money. Love growing cold is spreading or feasting on the gossip instead of rebuking and extinguishing it at the source. Envy and strife cause divisions among believers. We proudly exclaim we love God on social media. We assert this love in church services and among our cliques. Yet, we secretly hate other Christians, and the religious act makes us liars, 1 John 4:20-21. Instead of making peace and pursuing love, we nourish a root of bitterness.

We have become great wordsmiths in Christian circles. Much is written and spoken about our love, unity, and fellowship in Jesus. We wax eloquent about being the hands and feet of Jesus and loving in word and deed. Yet, there are people we promised to pray for and haven’t. There are those we are being led to witness to but don’t. There are people in our local fellowships we haven’t forgiven but should, 1 Peter 1:22.

We have become puffed-up fans of our favorite preachers instead of maintaining true Christ-like love and unity. We live in a day of celebrity pastors, mega-movements, coalitions, and networks, 1 Corinthians 3:3-4. I’m not asserting that all well-known organizations are inherently wrong because some advance the Kingdom. But we must use discernment about who we listen to and join with. We shouldn’t stop being Bereans because of well-crafted mission statements, spiritual-sounding platitudes, and good feelings, Acts 17:11.

As we consider those in spiritual leadership, we must look at a disturbing trend among shepherds. There’s a marked increase in pride, self-promotion, and sectarianism. It’s often the outcome when the emphasis is placed on movements, methods, money, and men, not Jesus. We’ve seen what happens when we elevate and idolize men, even those who began with good intentions. Consider how many scandals, broken churches, and hurting souls directly result from love growing cold.

Leaders can become jaded and minister to attendees, members, and convention goers, not to individual living souls. Our ranking among peers and the numbers we bring in have become the gold standard by which success in ministry is measured, even if we won’t admit it’s rooted in selfish ambition. It produces envy, strife, confusion, and evil deeds, Philippians 1:15-16 and James 3:16. When did ministry become a competition? If you are a shepherd, we’re on the same team. I’ve witnessed fellow ministers not give other shepherds the time of day because there’s nothing to gain. I have also seen well-known and extremely busy preachers do everything they can to show love and appreciation to other brothers.

I know millions of Christians and thousands of local churches must have a growing love for other believers and strive for unity in the true Church. Despite love growing colder and some professing believers losing their fire, countless remnant Christians still pursue a deeper love for one another and unity in the true Church.

How can we regain love and true unity among Christians?

God’s word is replete with encouragement to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Here’s what the Bible says about love and unity in daily life: 1 Thessalonians 4:9. When everyone seems to be firing back, getting in the last word, and pounding the send key, we should respond like Jesus, Colossians 3:12-14. If we open our eyes, there will be needs right in front of us that other Christians use help with we didn’t notice before, Galatians 6:10. When someone wants to bend your ear with gossip, or you are tempted to spread some yourself, remember how this vile sin spreads like gangrene. Think about what it does to the person on the receiving end of slander, even if they are unaware. Choose to pray for them instead. Proverbs 17:9.

“If what we call love doesn’t take us beyond ourselves, it is not really love.” “The evidence of our love for Him is the absolute spontaneity of our love.” “Love is the beginning and the middle and the end—the first sign, stamp, and seal—of the saint.”—  Oswald Chambers

Dear Christian friends, I haven’t arrived and have fallen short in many ways. But I want to re-commit to yield to the Lord’s command to a genuine love for fellow believers that only His Spirit can give. Let’s remember the love Jesus lavished upon us and have that same heart toward other believers. If you are a fellow minister, imagine what would happen if we esteem others better than ourselves. What would happen if we looked out for other people’s interests and ministries? It would produce a loving, like-minded humility that can only come from the Holy Spirit, Philippians 2:2-4. As love grows cold before Jesus’ return, let’s have true unity and love one another deeply from a pure heart, Psalm 133:1.

All for Him,

Howard

Podcast link:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/when-love-grows-cold-a-call-for-true-unity-among-believers/id1565453348?i=1000685438653