Sign-Acts: Prophetic Street Theater – 1/7/24

Over the past few months, as I’ve been finishing up my reading and my quiet time going through the Bible, particularly the Old Testament prophets, I began to notice a series of actions that were rather odd. I started to track these and soon realized there’s a name for these. They’re called Sign-Acts. I started jotting them down. I thought there were just a few, the more I began to see. I believe the Lord is leading me today to preach on the Sign-Acts of the prophets as an ordination message for John and Nathan, but the overflow for all of us. Afterward, I hope we can have a prayer time. As you’re listening to this, ask the Spirit to lead you as to what he would have you pray about in response to his word.

What are Sign-Acts? Sign-Acts are nonverbal acts or visual aids used by the prophets to help people envision, remember, and obey God’s Word. There are many other names I’ve been thinking about. We could call these sermonic charades, prophetic street theater, embodied prophecy, incarnational teaching, or prophetic show and tell. Sign-Acts are not the same as miracles (those are signs), and they’re not the same as just the lifestyle of the prophets (those are acts), but they combine those two as Sign-Acts. Sometimes they are super simple and easy to do, sometimes very complicated and even costly. They appear throughout the Bible, but they’re most concentrated in this section of the Old Testament we call the prophets. I’ve listed 25 of them. This is not a definitive number. I keep adding one and then going, “No, that’s not actually a Sign-Act,” and pulling it away. So, it’s not a definitive number, but I think it includes all the major Sign-Acts. Lest they overwhelm you, I’m not going to cover them all. I’ve listed them all, so if you want to explore them, be happy to. I want to encourage you, as some of you are not doing right now, stay with me. Try not to read ahead because what I want to be able to do is dive deeply in a couple, skim over a bunch, and then land on some overall implications from these Sign-Acts. Each one will have a text, an act, and a message.

The text you just heard read, Isaiah 20:1-6, God told Isaiah to go naked for three years. The message: don’t trust in Egypt and Cush. They will be exposed and exiled. A little bit of historical background might help. In 711 B.C., Ashdod, which was a Philistine city located just north of what we see now as Gaza, was conquered by Assyria. Excavations have unearthed the remains of thousands of people who were killed at this time by the Assyrians. They were under the Assyrian rule and also a “Basalt Victory Stele” was discovered that is there, similar to the ones found in the Assyrian capital. A stele is a slab or monument recording a triumph. But here in Isaiah 20, Ashdod is being encouraged to rebel against Assyria by Egypt and Kush, and Egypt and Kush are promising, “If you rebel, we’ll back you up.” If that’s confusing, think about an elementary school: a group of friends are beat up by a bully, and they say to one of their friends, “You go punch the bully. We’ll back you up.” Isaiah is saying, don’t punch the bully. Don’t put your trust in Egypt and Kush to back you up if you go against Assyria.

The way he did that was to run around town without clothes. I told you, some of these are bizarre. Look at verse three, Isaiah 20.

“Then the Lord said, ‘As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent—”

A portent is a symbolic act of wonder, a thing of wonder.

“…against Egypt and Kush, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt.’”

Archeologists have discovered a bulletin with the sermon title from Isaiah. If You Trust in Kush, You Will Expose Your Tush. That was his sermon. It sounds odd to me. Large vats of sunblock were discovered for some reason at the same place. We don’t know exactly what this looked like because the same Hebrew word for naked is used of taking off the outer robe, so it could have meant he took off his outer robe, which, in a culture characterized by modesty, even some removal of garments would have called forth questions. He could have worn a loincloth or— we don’t know. It seems like his actions were striking enough to draw the attention of everyone asking, “What in the world is going on here?” Then the Bible makes clear what is going on here. Look at verse five.

“Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?’”

Unfortunately, the nations around Judah did not listen to him. They put their confidence in Egypt and Cush. I think I failed to mention Kush is south of Egypt, also known as Nubia. They did stand up against Assyria and Sargon II sent his commander and decimated them and took many off into captivity.

Second example of a Sign-Act: Jeremiah 13. Jeremiah is told to buy, bury, and bring back a loin cloth. The message is when you follow your heart rather than the Lord, you become like this loincloth. Another odd request. God says to Jeremiah, take a loincloth (which was a very personal garment), travel to the Euphrates River (which would have taken months), bury it in rocks and dirt, travel back. Then later God said, go back and get the loin cloth. As he’s carrying this rotten, smelly garment that was made to be a very personal item close to your body, he is holding this up as a symbol that this is what you have become, and he explains why. Look at verse nine of Jeremiah 13. I’ll put it up on the screen.

“Thus says the Lord: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing. For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.”

Third example. Jeremiah 16. Do not marry, mourn, or be merry. The Lord will silence the voice of mourning and joy. So, Jeremiah’s called to stay single, do not get married, in order to embody the social disintegration that was leading to exile. Family relationships were breaking down and Jeremiah was not to mourn. Why? Verse five.

“For I have taken away my peace [my shalom] from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the Lord.”

When people ask you, Jeremiah, why aren’t you getting married? Why don’t you celebrate at feasts and festivals? Why don’t you mourn at funerals? Verse 11 —

“…then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’”

Jeremiah’s relational and emotional paralysis became a billboard of Israel’s relationship with God.

Number four. Jeremiah 19, he is told to break a potter’s jug.

Jeremiah 27, he is instructed to make and wear yoke-bars on his shoulder.

Jeremiah 32, he is to buy a field during a siege. That makes no sense. You’re surrounded. Everyone’s going to lose everything, and Jeremiah’s doling out some money to buy a field. Why? Look at Jeremiah 32:42,

“For thus says the Lord: Just as I brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I promise them. Fields shall be bought in this land…”

As Jeremiah was buying a field in the middle of a siege, God was saying, this isn’t the end of the story. The best is yet to come. Let’s skip down to Ezekiel.

Ezekiel does more Sign-Acts than any other prophet by far. He had been taken into Babylonian exile in 597 B.C., the first wave of exiles taken there. God calls him to become a sign in exile while Jerusalem is still standing, hasn’t been destroyed yet. Chapter 12, verse six.

“For I have made you a sign for the house of Israel.”

Ezekiel, you’re not just speaking a message, you are being a message. What did he call them to do? Here are a few examples.

Ezekiel three. Eat the scroll. It’s going to taste sweet at the beginning as you feed on my word, and then it’s going to become bitter. Because my people reject it.

The next one is Ezekiel 3:26. You will be mute except when I open your mouth. Apparently, Ezekiel had no social life for seven and a half years until he got the news in 586 that Jerusalem had fallen. He spoke only when God opened his mouth to communicate his message, so much of his ministry is prophetic charades.

Ezekiel 4 and 5 is like a play that has several scenes. Act one is Ezekiel 4:1-8. Simulate siegeworks with a brick and lie on your side. He was to lie on his left for 14 months, and then on his right for 40 days.

Ezekiel 4:9-17. Eat the bread of rations. He’s told to eat the kind of food that people eat when they have nothing else to eat.

Ezekiel 5. Shave your head and weigh the hair, and he put some of the hair through fire, some through sword, some through wind. Why? Jerusalem will be a message of judgment for the nation. Ezekiel is a message to Judah, and Judah is a message to the nations.

Skip down to Ezekiel 12. Pack your luggage. Why? Prepare to be scattered.

Some of these Sign-Acts are super simple to do, like the next one. Eat and drink with trembling. All he had to do was shake a little while he’s eating and drinking to communicate that the land in the cities will be laid waste.

Some of these are big and super hard. For example, in Ezekiel 24. If you drop down to number 20: your wife will die, but do not mourn. All of these are summarized in Ezekiel 24:24.

“Thus shall Ezekiel be to you a sign; according to all that he has done you shall do. When this comes, then you will know that I am the Lord God.”

Now, to get to a more familiar sign, some of you may know of Hosea. In Hosea 1:2-11, he is called to marry a prostitute to communicate the fact that the land is characterized by unfaithfulness. Hosea married Gomer. They named their children To Scatter, No Mercy, and Not My People. In other words, his whole life embodied the message. Yet, it’s not all bad news.

Look at Hosea 1:10.

“Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ it shall be said to them, ‘Children of the living God.’”

Now, when it comes to Jonah, I’ve struggled a bit. What is this Sign-Act? And what is just Jonah’s life? Like when Jonah refused to hear the call of God and go to Nineveh and he fled, and then was asleep on a boat, and then offered himself to be hurled over and then swallowed by a fish. In many ways, his whole life is a Sign-Act, but I think the most specific example of a Sign-Act is in chapter four of Jonah where Jonah is enjoying the shade from the plant God provided in the midst of the heat, until the worm God appointed killed the plant, and then the wind and the sun beat down on him and made him angry. What a powerful, simple illustration as Jonah representing Israel is far more concerned about shade than souls. God is saying, you would rather be comfortable outside of my will then compassionate within my will. Like you get—this just speaks so much to my heart—so animated when something that makes you feel uncomfortable happens to you, but so unanimated when you think about countless souls moving toward judgment. There’s an ethnocentrism to Jonah: I’m interested in my people, but not those people. All of that is embodied in the Sign-Acts. Very powerful.

What are some implications of these Sign-Acts? Why would we take a Sunday morning and look at these bizarre acts? Let me mention six implications.

Number one, God’s call is comprehensive. It is a whole-life call. When God told a prophet to walk around without clothes, to stay single, to get married, to break pottery, to eat a scroll, the prophets didn’t say to God, “Well, let me get back with you,” “I’ve taken some gift tests, and I’ve discovered eating scrolls is not in my gifts,” “I’m paper free in my diet.” No. You notice every one of them is like, yes, Lord. I don’t understand. Why do you want me to lie on my side and then lie on my other side? What do you want me to eat this, not eat this? Marry, not marry. Stay single, get married. Mary who? But the call of God is a comprehensive call. We’re all in. Nathan and John are not saying, I want to be ordained for my job. It’s not a job. It’s a whole life call. Paul universalizes this for all of us in 1 Corinthians 6. He’s talking specifically about sexual purity, but he backs the camera up to the wide angle and he says in verse 19,

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

Three big ideas there. Number one, presence. “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you.” He is within you if you’re a believer in Jesus. Secondly, ownership. “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.” That is so assuring, and it’s relieving. Your job isn’t to create an identity. You are not your own. You’ve been bought with a price. Then finally, action. “…glorify God in your body.” This is what the Sign-Acts were. This is the main message. If you’re overwhelmed with all these examples I just gave, get this: you’re not your own. You’re bought with a price. He fills you and you say, “Glorify your name in any way you call me to glorify your name.” This year … what a tremendous way to start. Lord, you are in me. You are over me. You own me, and this year, you’re going to call all of us to glorify you in ways that we may not even know yet or have planned because it’s not up to us. Huge implications here.

So the ministry is never just a job. There’s no such thing as a part-time pastor or elder. The best sermon that Nathan or John will ever preach is the one they live. It doesn’t matter how well they preach, the way they live will preach. In 1 Timothy 4:13 Paul says,

“Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.”

So it is important what we say.

“Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you [which we just did]. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. [It’s embodied.] Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

It is lived. This doesn’t mean you don’t take vacations. It doesn’t mean you never rest. You need to rest. You need to take vacations, but even the way you do those things is shaped by your calling. God’s call is comprehensive.

Secondly, God rarely duplicates Sign-Acts. There are a couple that are similar, but most are quite distinct. This is why I made sure Nathan and John were wearing clothes today. Do not emulate Isaiah, whatever he was wearing. Our job isn’t to identify a preacher and say, “I’m going to be exactly like that. I’m going to do it exactly like he does it.” Paul touches on this because there’s a way in which godly leaders are to be imitated, but they will never be replicated. That distinction is important. 1 Thessalonians 1:4,

“For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you.”

Do you see that? My life, Paul is saying, is a Sign-Act.

“…what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.”

So Paul called the Thessalonians to live the way he lived. But if we had time to trace that out, it’s very interesting because Paul came out of Phariseeism, so the way he lived that out looked different from the Thessalonians who came out of paganism. They lived that out differently, so they were emulating but not replicating. It was a uniqueness. There’s a uniqueness to Nathan and a uniqueness to John. We want to model their godly living, but the way we do it will look different. C.S. Lewis said there is one prayer that God rarely answers, and that is a prayer for an encore because even when he does it again, it’s different. There’s a freshness. There’s a uniqueness. Even when we look back and say, “God, do it again,” he’s going to do it in a way that is, strictly speaking, not an encore. It doesn’t look exactly the same. God rarely duplicates Sign-Acts.

Number three, God’s call can seem terribly inefficient. I’m sure Jeremiah must have felt this. Imagine traveling all the way to the Euphrates River, burying a loin cloth, and then saying, now, God, what do you want me to do? Oh, go home. And then, however later, you want me to travel all the way back. No train, no plane. Maybe a camel. Months. This feels really inefficient. You don’t have anything better for me to do than walk around with yolk bars, buying a field in the middle of a siege. Isn’t this a waste of your money, Lord? God so often calls us to do things that, in our view, feel very inefficient. Do you have small children? It can feel very inefficient. I was just talking to a young couple a few minutes ago in the lobby and lots of little kids. They were like, “Whew! My calling: diapers, food, dishes.” Like, what in the world? Adopting a little one. Yes, I hear your call. That call might mean I can’t do other things now because I’m devoted to this call, and that can feel at times inefficient.

My wife and I have wrestled with this because, as we moved into this stage of life, we’re talking about these new ministries we want to jump into and these new ways to serve you, and then she’s diagnosed with this rare cancer, and we’re going to doctor’s appointments and she’s often feeling sick as a dog, can’t get out of bed, and it’s like, “Really, God? You want me to spend my time this way?” You know what I’m talking about. Sickness feels super inefficient. As someone who measures each day by a delusional view of productivity, like, did I get enough done, God? Instinctively. God just has very different plans. He’ll just blow those plans away and say, how about you do what I call you to do? And how about you be okay with that? I’m using you, and it might not look as efficient or effective as we would hope. James has a good word for us here. James 5:7 —

“Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.”

He’s using these prophets who did these Sign-Acts as an example of patience. It would take huge amounts of patience to walk around with the yoke bar on your shoulder when nobody’s listening to you.

“Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”

Job’s whole life was, in a general sense, a sign that God’s call can seem terribly inefficient.

Number four, living out God’s message is both vital and dangerous. It’s vital, but dangerous. What do we mean, vital? Look at 1 Timothy 3:2.

“Therefore an overseer [an elder, a pastor] must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?”

That’s Paul’s way of saying, in a general sense, your whole life is a Sign-Act. It’s vital. The way you live cannot be inconsistent with what you preach. But I said both vital and lethal because of this reason— When our kids were younger, my wife and I had this talk a lot because it scared us to raise kids in a pastor’s home because, in one sense, your whole life is a Sign-Act. But there’s that weird tension that is both vital and lethal. It’s lethal in the sense of if your kids grow up thinking their job is to act a role, a part, it will suck the life out of their souls. But it’s important to understand this: that’s true for all of us. That’s one of the reasons we tried to communicate to our kids, we do what we do because we’re followers of Jesus. We live the way we lived when I was running a business before our church started. It’s the same way we live now as pastors because for all of us, in a sense, our lives are Sign-Acts.

Let me show you what I mean. We’re going to see this in a few weeks in our study of Matthew. Matthew 5:16, Jesus said,

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

In one sense, Jesus is saying you have to live to be seen. In the very next chapter, Matthew 6:1,

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them—”

Do you feel the tension?

from your Father who is in heaven.”

So live to be seen, don’t live to be seen. In other words, your good deeds need to be seen but can never be done simply to be seen. Every Christian needs to feel that tension. If you’re trying to be an invisible Christian, there’s no such thing. You live to be seen. But if you’re living to be seen, you’re a hypocrite. Whew! That’s getting really close to both the vital and lethal nature of ministry. By the way, marriage is the same way. According to Ephesians 5, as a husband sacrificially loves his wife, as a wife humbly responds to his love, that is a giant Sign-Act to the world of the love of Jesus for his church and the church’s response. So, our marriages, brothers and sisters, are Sign-Acts, so we can never love to be seen. But if you love, you will be seen. Your marriage is going to stand out in our culture that is intentionally trying to harpoon marriages, so live to be seen but never live in a way that you will be seen. Never live for the purpose of being seen. God’s message is both vital and dangerous.

Number five, Sign-Acts can be misinterpreted without God’s clear word. A great example of this is a Sign-Act in Acts 21. Paul and his team were staying at Caesarea in Philip’s house, and a prophet named Agaba came from Judea. Look at verse 11 of Acts 21.

“And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, ‘Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’ When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, ‘What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’ And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, ‘Let the will of the Lord be done.’”

They rightly saw the Sign-Act of binding, but they interpreted the binding as a warning. Paul interpreted the binding as a calling. See the difference. They rightly saw. When Agaba bound himself, he was rightly hearing the Spirit’s message, but they were wrongly interpreting the message. This is why it’s so important to heed Peter’s warning in 2 Peter 1:19,

“And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention…”

This is why we’re constantly going back to God’s inspired word establishing,

“Am I hearing this right, Lord?”

Number six, and this is the big one: the life and death of Jesus is the ultimate Sign-Act. It is much more than a Sign-Act, but it is a Sign-Act. Peter explains this in 1 Peter 2:21.

“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”

This is an example.

“He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

The amazing thing about Jesus’s Sign-Act is it wasn’t just an example. He both illustrated and activated our life transformation. He didn’t just say, “Hey Peter, try to do what I do.” No. By his wounds, you have been healed. He transforms us through his death, burial, and resurrection. Peter goes on a few chapters later and applies this to John and Nathan and all of us in ministry. Chapter five, verse one.

“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being in examples of the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

So, on this first Sunday in 2024, as we launch into this new year, we are being called to emulate the prophets in acknowledging we are not our own, we have been bought with a price, and our call is to glorify God in our bodies. If this seems like an impossible call, the first response we want to have today is to look to Jesus because he doesn’t just hold up the standard. He holds us up to this standard. He washes us clean. He fills us with his spirit. He calls us his own. If you don’t know him, please call out to him this morning. Right now. If you do know him, but you’re acting as if your body, your life, your plans, your schedule, your future, your possessions are your own, then give it over to him. Today. Like now.

The way we want to respond now— let’s do a couple things. First of all, we’re going to sing a song that just turns our eyes to Jesus and use this time to pray. Then I’m going to come back up and we’re going to have an opportunity to spend some time praying for one another and for our ministries here at North Hills. Let’s sing “Before The Throne Of God.” Let’s stand together.