FOURTH QUARTER 2026
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #4
OCTOBER 24, 2026
"NEW TESTAMENT PROPHETS".

 

This week we are studying the gift of prophecy in the New Testament. We consider the distinction between apostles and prophets, the functions of New Testament prophets, and the fact that God has called both men and women to serve as prophets. We also see that wherever God has a true prophet, Satan often raises up a false one.

So let’s jump right in and consider these topics through the lens of Jesus.

Jesus as Prophet

Peter and John were going to the temple to pray when they encountered a man who had been lame from birth. He asked them for alms, but instead of giving him silver or gold, they gave him something infinitely better. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, they healed him. The man who had never walked stood up, began walking and leaping, and praised God.

The miracle attracted a crowd and gave Peter an opportunity to proclaim the gospel. In his message Peter identified Jesus as the Prophet promised through Moses:

“For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days” (Acts 3:22-24, NKJV).

Peter was quoting from a familiar passage in the Torah:

“The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear” (Deuteronomy 18:15, NKJV).

God had also promised:

“I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him” (Deuteronomy 18:18,19).

This was no ordinary prophet. The consequences of refusing to hear Him would be eternal and irrevocable. Notice the seriousness of the warning: Every soul was to hear this Prophet in all things He said. To reject Him was to reject the One whom God had sent.

Shortly after Peter delivered this message, he and John were thrown into jail. Yet the truth they proclaimed could not be silenced.

Others during Jesus' ministry had also recognized Him as this promised Prophet. After witnessing His miracle, the people declared:

“Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world’” (John 6:14).

On another occasion, we read:

“Therefore, many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, ‘Truly this is the Prophet.’ Others said, ‘This is the Christ’” (John 7:40,41).

It turned out that they were both right. Jesus was the Prophet promised through Moses, who in fact was also the Christ.

In what manner was Jesus a prophet? Peter gives us an important insight into the nature of prophetic revelation:

“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).

Could these words also apply to Jesus, the incarnate Word of God as prophet? From Peter's perspective, the answer is a resounding yes. The prophetic word of the Law and the Prophets is confirmed in the person of Jesus Christ, of whom Peter himself could bear witness.

Furthermore, when Peter describes how the prophets received and communicated God's message, does he not also help us understand how Jesus, the Prophet to whom the Old Testament prophets pointed, carried out His mission?

Consider Jesus' own testimony:

“The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do” (John 5:19).

“I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30).

“I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38).

“The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 6:38).

“The Father gave Him commandment concerning what to say and speak” (John 6:38).

“I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me” (John 6:38).

Jesus did not act independently of His Father. He did not speak merely from His own initiative or pursue a will separate from the Father's will. He received His message from the Father and depended upon Him in carrying out His mission. In this respect, Jesus' prophetic ministry reveals the same principle of complete dependence upon God that we see in the lives of all His faithful prophets.

Yet Jesus was unlike every other prophet in, at least, one important respect. The other prophets pointed forward to Him or, in the case of New Testament prophets, pointed back to Him and bore witness to what He would or had accomplished. Jesus came to fulfill and confirm all that the prophets had foretold and to prepare a way for Him to abide in every person’s heart.

He was the reality and substance to which all other prophetic messages pointed. Old Testament prophets anticipated His coming, while New Testament prophets testified of Him and His work. In this sense they were all prophets of the Prophet.

Jesus as Apostle

Jesus was not only the promised Prophet; He was also the Apostle.

“Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus” (Hebrews 3:1).

The word apostle carries the meaning of one who is sent—a messenger or envoy. Jesus was sent from God as His representative and messenger. He testified:

“Jesus said to them … nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me” (John 8:42).

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).

Jesus was the Apostle sent by the Father. Every other apostle is an apostle sent by the Apostle.

Jesus prayed to His Father concerning His disciples:

“As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (John 17:18).

We see the same principle in the ministry of the New Testament apostles:

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God…” (1 Timothy 1:1).

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ…” (1 Peter 1:1).

Jesus was an Apostle sent by the Father, and His apostles were sent by Him. Their authority and mission were derived from Christ, who sent them.

The Functions of this Prophet of Deuteronomy 18

Every prophet is called to edify, build up, exhort, encourage, comfort, and admonish. But these functions find their ultimate purpose when prophets direct their hearers to Jesus, the Prophet promised in Deuteronomy 18, and to His saving work.

Consider some of the functions that belong uniquely to Christ and to which every true prophet will direct us.

1. Reveal the Father to humanity

Jesus came to reveal what the Father is like. Through His words, actions, and character, He made the Father known.

“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him” (John 14:7).

Jesus also prayed:

“I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word” (John 17:4-6).

To know Jesus is to come to know the Father. The prophets' work must therefore lead people to see the character and glory of God as revealed in Christ.

2. Reconcile humanity to God

Sin separated humanity from God, but the mission of Jesus was to bring us back into fellowship with Him.

“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them” (2 Corinthians 5:18,19).

Paul further explains:

“And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight” (Colossians 1:21,22).

Notice that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Reconciliation is not humanity persuading an unwilling God to receive us. It is God's work through Christ to restore us to Himself. The prophets must direct people to this reconciliation accomplished through Jesus.

3. Give His life for the sins of the world

The suffering and death of Jesus were central to the prophetic message long before He came to earth.

“For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken” (Isaiah 53:8).

John the Baptist identified Him as the fulfillment of this testimony:

“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Paul likewise declared that Christ:

“Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Galatians 1:4).

The Prophet promised through Moses came to give His life for the sins of the world. Every true prophetic message must ultimately direct us to Christ and His sacrifice.

4. Give humanity His life

Jesus did not come merely to tell or show us how to live—He came to give us life in Himself.

“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Paul describes Christ in these words:

“When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).

John makes the same truth unmistakably clear:

“And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11,12).

Eternal life is found in Christ. He does not merely point us toward life outside Himself; He is our life. Every prophet must lead people to receive Christ and the life that is found in Him.

5. Live His life in believers and produce His righteousness in them

The work of Christ does not end with His sacrifice for us. He also desires to live in us and reproduce His righteousness in our lives.

Jesus explained this relationship through the illustration of the vine and its branches:

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

Paul described his own experience of this truth:

“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me…” (Galatians 1:15,16).

He also testified:

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Paul's ministry was directed toward this very purpose:

“My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19).

He prayed that believers would be:

“strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; … that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16-19).

And he expressed his confidence in God's work:

“Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ…” (Hebrews 13:20,21).

The gospel is not simply a message telling us what we ought to do. It is the good news that Christ desires to dwell in us and work in us what is pleasing in God's sight. His righteousness is to become a living reality in the lives of His people. This is one of the great truths to which every true prophet must direct us.

6. Give the Holy Spirit

Jesus not only gives us His life; He also gives us the Holy Spirit, through whom His life and power are made effective in us.

Peter declared:

“Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear” (Acts 2:33).

Paul explained:

“And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Galatians 4:6).

He further wrote:

“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:9-11).

The Holy Spirit brings the presence and life of Christ into the believer's experience. The prophetic message must therefore lead people beyond a mere intellectual understanding of truth to an experience in which Christ dwells in their hearts through His Spirit.

7. Mediate and intercede on behalf of humanity

Jesus is also our Mediator and High Priest. He represents humanity before God and continually intercedes for those who come to God through Him.

“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Timothy 2:5,6).

We are assured that:

“Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

The book of Hebrews adds:

“But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6).

Paul likewise asks:

“Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us” (Romans 8:34).

Christ's saving work includes both what He accomplished for us through His death and resurrection and His ongoing ministry as our Mediator and Intercessor. Every other prophet must direct people to this completed and continuing work of the Prophet whose word they are called to hear.

Diversity Among Prophets

The prophets in the Bible came from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. God has demonstrated His ability to use men and women, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, to serve in the prophetic office.

What, then, is the defining quality that enables someone to be used by God in this work? It is a willingness to be led by and filled with the Spirit of God.

A true prophet must be willing to hear and follow what the Lord reveals, to exercise humility of heart, to place complete confidence in the One who leads, and to allow Christ to abide in the heart.

Their backgrounds and circumstances may be diverse, but the essential principle remains the same: dependence upon God and a life surrendered to Christ.

Paul expresses this unity beautifully:

“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26-28).

God does not limit His ability to work through people according to their social standing, education, or gender. What matters is their relationship to Christ and their willingness to be led by His Spirit.

Ultimately, the purpose of every true prophet is to lead people to Jesus—the Prophet promised through Moses, the Apostle sent by the Father, our Reconciler, our Life, our Righteousness, and our Mediator. The prophets may serve in different ways, but their message must direct us to Him and to the fullness of His saving work.

False Prophets

 

The distinguishing characteristic of the spirit of antichrist is self-exaltation. This is the principle that lies beneath the work of false prophets.

Lucifer fell because his heart was lifted up on account of his beauty, and he desired to exalt his throne and become like the Most High (Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:17). He was not content with the position God had given him, but sought to place himself where only God belongs.

This same spirit was manifested in Eden when Satan led Eve to question God's goodness and persuaded her that she could attain a higher position independently of Him. The temptation was to distrust God's word, question His character, and seek by self what could only be received from God.

False prophets continue this same work whenever they turn people away from complete dependence upon Christ and direct them instead toward human wisdom, human merit, self-exaltation, or confidence in their own works.

They may speak the language of Christianity and even profess to honor the Bible, yet their message reveals its true source by leading people away from the humility and self-surrender of Christ.

The issue is not merely whether their words sound religious, but whether their teaching leads us to trust Christ alone or encourages the spirit of self that is opposed to Him. In this sense, the work of false prophets and the spirit of antichrist are one and the same: both oppose Christ by substituting self for Him.

Here is why a knowledge of correct doctrine, by itself, cannot protect us from deception. We may profess the truth and still cherish the very spirit that caused Lucifer's fall.

Wherever self rules, the spirit of Satan finds an entrance; wherever Christ rules, His unselfish character is revealed.

The answer to false prophets is not simply to become more skilled at identifying error, but to know Christ so fully that His voice, His righteousness, and His character become unmistakable to us.

Christ did not please Himself (Romans 15:3). Those who follow Him must allow His Spirit to displace the selfishness that naturally governs the human heart.

We cannot accomplish this transformation by our own power. As Christ emptied Himself so that the fullness of God might be revealed in Him, we must surrender ourselves to Christ and allow Him to live in us.

Only then will we be prepared to discern the difference between the true Shepherd and those who speak in His name while working against Him.

The greatest safeguard against false prophets is Christ abiding in us, reproducing His own character and keeping us rooted in His Word.

“Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

 

—Kelly Kinsley