Killing the Prophets
About this sermon
In “Killing the Prophets,” Pastor Dean Odle presents a Scripture-centered message about Bible prophecy, the condition of the church, spiritual leadership. Drawing especially from Matthew 23, Ephesians 4, Galatians 6, Isaiah 30, the teaching emphasizes that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone. Odle connects that foundation with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle focuses on Bible prophecy while working through Matthew 23. The message argues that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone. It connects this with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on Bible prophecy. The message argues that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone. It connects this with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on spiritual leadership while working through Ephesians 4. The message argues that leaders are accountable to teach faithfully, serve the flock, and model the character they proclaim. It connects this with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on Satanic opposition. The message argues that Satan’s work is described through deception, accusation, temptation, and opposition to God’s purposes. It connects this with the conviction that God’s commands reveal His standard and direct the obedient life. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on Bible prophecy while working through Galatians 6, Isaiah 30. The message argues that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone. It connects this with the conviction that Scripture is presented as the standard for doctrine, discernment, and daily obedience. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on the condition of the church while working through Jeremiah 28 and 1 Peter 4. The message argues that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. It connects this with the conviction that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on the condition of the church. The message argues that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. It connects this with the conviction that biblical love is demonstrated through truth, patience, sacrifice, and conduct toward others. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on Bible prophecy while working through John 16. The message argues that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone. It connects this with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
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- 0:00:00
this morning let's turn first of all let's turn to the book of matthew the lord definitely has laid something on my heart this morning the title today is going to be called killing the prophets killing the prophets this has been a very interesting week to say the least of dealing with both people in the church world christians even pastors and other other regions and also of because someone actually tagged me on facebook in a post by i think i guess it's w what's the channel in columbus w t v m or whatever something like that anyway about a church they had a they had posted an article or a segment about a church i think it was in kentucky that had said god had spoken to them and was going to lead them uh to do gay weddings in their church building building and so of course i made a few comments and it started a whole long discussion uh with both people who claim to be christians uh gay people uh that got pretty vicious i found out gay people aren't the nicest people in the world they call us bigots but by very by the very definition of bigotry um they have no tolerance whatsoever for anyone that disagrees with them about anything and uh boy you get some of the most hateful speech and some of the most hateful words coming from uh the gay community just when you don't agree that their behavior is not acceptable to god and it's not acceptable no more than heterosexual sexual sin is acceptable to god i mean it's it's not i don't know why they think we're picking on them because uh you know you know we we deal with every kind of sin and you know what bottom line is we all need jesus and we all need forgiveness of our sins and so you know just tried to share the gospel with him and of course i got another hateful email this well found it this morning but that doesn't trouble me as much i understand the world jesus said the world will hate you but it will love its own right the world hates the truth because they love their sin right and the truth of god the truth of the gospel confronts sin but the problem that i'm finding is not that the world we should be surprised that the world wants to kill the prophets of god we should be surprised that it's the church a lot of the church most of the
- 0:03:00
church wants to silence true prophets and we get this and i'm going to share some very specific things this morning because i'm just going to be honest with you uh most of the church wants the true prophets to shut up and they'll be the ones who actually turn on us and side with the unsaved when it really gets down to the nitty-gritty right so let's look at this passage of scripture this is kind of our overriding text this morning this is i'm sorry i said matthew 23. matthew 23 and of course in the context of what i'm about to read is jesus rebuking the religious leaders of his day the accepted religious leaders of his day the well-known the well-educated the connected the successful successful right the theologians the doctors of the law right those with dds and thds and phds and philosophy and theology right right here's what he said though to them and let's just back up in verse 33 he said ye serpents you generation of vipers how can you escape the damnation of hell wherefore behold i send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes and some of them you shall kill and crucify and some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues or your places of worship and you will persecute them from city to city that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous abel unto the blood of zechariah the son of barakai whom ye slew between the temple and the altar verily i say unto you all these things shall come upon this generation and then he adds this jesus laments over jerusalem and he said oh jerusalem jerusalem thou that killeth the prophets and stoneth them which are sent unto thee how often would i have gathered you and thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not behold your house is left unto you desolate for i say unto you you shall not see me henceforth till you say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the lord now jerusalem jerusalem and the people to whom jesus was speaking here were the
- 0:06:00
people of god they were the covenant people of god they were the israelites so in our day and time that would be the equivalent of god speaking to the church to the people of god to the born-again believers to those in covenant with him and he's saying to to to them and he's saying it to us even now he said you kill the prophets you people of god you're the ones who don't want to hear it you don't want to confront the issues you don't want sin confronted you don't want evil confronted you don't want your compromise confirmed you don't want to hear it you try to silence the prophets you stone the prophets you hate the prophets you reject the prophets because a true prophet will shine the light on exactly the area where you are in sin and compromising going off course everyone will love the false prophets the false prophets say peace peace when there is no peace the paul's prophets say prosperity and goodness is coming when nothing but judgment and wrath and destruction is coming the false prophets always promise you something good but the hated ones are the ones that warn you the ones that see through you the ones that know what spirit is operating in your life or your home or your church i want to show you some things here before we go further of course i've taught some on the ministry of prophets but let's look at some passages everybody go to ephesians chapter four so we have new listeners many times over ephesians chapter four with me speaking of jesus in verse 11 it says he jesus christ he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of christ till we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of christ that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sight of men in the cunning craftiness whereby they line weight to the sea god has established a fivefold ministry for the church and he says it is until we come into the unity of the faith
- 0:09:01
and it is until we come into the stature of a mature man or a mature christian now anyone who has any sense at all can see number one that the church spread across the world even in america is not in unity by any stretch of the imagination and neither or have we come into maturity or the fullness of christ so these gifts what basically he says this knowing that until jesus returns we would never ever come into the unity of the faith we will never as a whole come into full maturity as a christian so he's letting us know that these ministries will be needed basically until jesus comes he doesn't put a stop on of course there's the traditional teaching that after the apostles in the first century that only evangelist pastors and teachers ministry continued okay but that is a lie he didn't say anywhere in scripture that the ministry of apostles or prophets would vanish okay okay now what is the problem today in so many churches and i'm just going to say this before i proceed into the next passage of scripture but one of the greatest problems in many many churches today is that they have pastors they have teachers they may even have an evangelist show up once in a while but most of them don't have prophets and couldn't recognize one if one slap them in the face and usually if god sends them one they reject they reject he rejected and this is why you have such weak deceived watered-down sin ridden crazy stuff in the church world right now because because let me just explain we have a nurse up here it works in surgery the prophet's the surgeon he's the one that's got to do the nasty work by cutting you open and cutting stuff out of you it shouldn't be there or fixing stuff inside you that's wrong [Music] it's the pa it's it's the most painful job to the patient patient you have all kind of doctors you got general practitioners you got specialists with this you got specialists with that and and that's what the fivefold ministry is you have specialists in areas but the prophet's the surgeon okay okay let's just keep looking at this let's go to first corinthians i'm about to hurt some pastors feelings
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