Tonight we continue the teaching on spiritual gifts begun in chapter 12. There Paul listed many gifts of the Spirit – everybody has at least one. Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, interpretation of tongues, apostleship, teaching, healing, helping, administrating. All the gifts we manifest are important and useful for building the body, i.e. the local church. God gives us what we need. What we don’t have, we don’t need.

Chapter 13 warned us to use our gifts in love, the highest and eternal virtue. Specifically highlighted the necessity of tempering tongues, prophecy, knowledge, and extraordinary faith with love, because that was a problem for the church in Corinth.

Tonight’s passage emphasizes two gifts in particular and their relative value in building the body of Christ – tongues and prophecy. We’re going to have some controversy, because these are two of the most controversial spiritual gifts in Western Christianity conversation today. Contextually, I believe that tongues refers to the speaking of human languages that the speaker doesn’t know. I’m in the minority on this one…

Typically today when people refer to tongues they mean a non-human language, sometimes called glossolalia, or the tongue of angels. In the context of this passage, tongues serve a function of prayer and praise spoken to God. I’ve seen tongues spoken, believers I respect a lot have claimed to speak and interpret tongues, and they claimed to understand the tongues that were spoken. It’s difficult for me to dismiss them completely, but I remain skeptical. In 1st century Greco-Roman culture, there were plenty of groups speaking ecstatic nonsense that wasn’t the work of the Holy Spirit. I still think genuine tongues refers to human languages as in Acts 2. I’ve heard some scholars describe glossolalia as a relaxed mental state of prayer. That may well be accurate. That wouldn’t be a work of the Spirit, but also wouldn’t be evil.

Prophecy refers to a specific spontaneous message from God. Paul identifies several purposes: revelation, upbuilding, encouragement, consolation. In light of the closure of Scripture in Revelation, I don’t believe there is any further revelation. But the unusual insight or ability to apply God’s Word to a situation for encouragement, consoloation, or conviction, I can embrace as prophetic.

I’m not a strict cessationist – probably some of you are, as are some on the staff here. A cessationist says that many of the more spectacular displays of the Holy Spirit stopped in the 1st century: miracles, healing, tongues, and prophecy. It’s hard to find plausible biblical support for this – it seems to be an overreaction to the excesses of the Pentecostal movement. It also concerns me as a prideful limitation on the power of God to work as He wills. I believe there are credible reports of miracles and healing on the extreme frontiers of Christianity. My perspective is that the miraculous gifts tend to appear on the far edges of Christianity as the Kingdom of God is first breaking into a new area – it demonstrates itself with great power to get some people’s attention. As the church establishes itself and a gospel presence takes root in an area, the  Spirit shifts to working through proclamation. After all, a miracle show gets a lot of attention but little lasting faith – we see that in Jesus’ own ministry.

I believe there’s a prophetic aspect to my role as preacher. Not to bring new revelation, but to apply God’s Word to this unique community at this particular time and place. I believe that’s more than a teaching function, but rather a way that God speaks to people. That’s one reason I’m stridently opposed to pastoral plagiarism or sermon reuse, by the way.

Following Christ in 21st Century Corinth – Week 20

presented 27 February 2019

1 Corinthians 14: 1-25

AUDIO

Lecture Handout

Handout Week 20

Lesson Notes

Tongues & Prophecy (1 Corinthians 14: 1-25)

  • Verse 1 – Pursue love – make it the highest
    • Earnestly desire the spiritual gifts
    • Implies to me that our gifts can change, and we can seek after and pray for specific gifts, though no guarantee of receiving them
    • Despite some serious problems with gifts in the church of Corinth, Paul doesn’t want the church to abandon them. That’s a good insight for us today!
    • Emphasis on prophecy – because it brings a message from God to the people
  • Verse 2 – Why is prophecy better?
    • Because people can’t understand tongues
    • Tongues are spoken to God and a mystery – the meaning is hidden from us
  • Verse 3 – Prophecy isn’t about telling the future!
    • Speaks to people for upbuildin, encouragement, and consolation
    • That’s why I love to preach
  • Verse 4 – Tongues speaking encourages that person only
    • Prophecy builds up the church -> the fundamental purpose for our gifts
  • Verses 5-9
    • Tongues and prophecy are both good, but prophecy is better unless there’s an interpreter present to build the church up
    • No value in tongues unless it gives revelation, knowledge, prophecy, or teaching
    • Like musical instruments where you can’t distinguish the notes
    • Or like a bugle giving battle orders when you can tell what it’s ordering
  • Verses 10-11 – Many different languages in the world, but if you don’t know the meaning, you’re simply unable to communicate
    • Why I begin to think tongue-speaking refers to foreign human languages as in Acts 2: 1-13
  • Verse 12 – So, Corinthian church, you’re so eager for displays of the Spirit…
    • Strive to excel not in gifts for gifts’ sake, but for BUILDING UP the church
    • This emphasis throughout on building up – part of the reason for our pillars of Welcoming In – Building Up – Reaching Out
  • Verses 13-16
    • If you speak in a tongue, pray you can interpret – solves the problem just described of nobody understanding, including yourself
    • Speaking in tongues engages your spirit, but not your mind, so its value is limited, even for you
    • We want to pray and praise with spirit AND mind – our emotions and our cognition. That’s a good reminder for our churches, which can tend toward one or the other!
    • Nobody can praise along with you if they don’t understand
  • Verses 18-19
    • Paul isn’t against tongues! He excels at it
    • But he puts far more emphasis in church on a few clear words from his mind than an endless babble nobody understands
    • This is a huge indictment of some Pentecostal churches that view tongues-speaking as the minimum sign of true salvation and encourage it in worship
    • Clearly Paul doesn’t prefer that!
  • Verse 20 – Thank carefully and maturely. Just because we should be childlike regarding evil doesn’t imply we should be childlike in how we think or worship
  • Verses 21-25
    • The final part of this passage helps us understand the earlier verses
    • Verse 23 – If an unbeliever walks into a church where everyone is speaking in tongues, they’ll think everyone’s crazy and walk out
    • Tongues won’t help them come to faith
    • Verse 24 – Prophecy on the other hand, they’ll understand and be convicted and called to account, then worship God (become converted)
    • Verse 22 – Refers to a sign of judgment, or a negative sign
      • Prophecy leads unbelievers to belief, hence a sign for believers
      • Tongues is a stumbling block, a sign leaving people condemned as unbelievers
      • See verse 21 (quoting Isaiah 28: 11) – God speaking in foreign language, bringing judgment on Israel through a foreign people, and people won’t listen

Concluding Implications

  • Why do we care? We don’t speak tongues here and you may or may not believe that some here have a prophetic word to share, so why should we care at LRBC?
    • It helps us think carefully about the claims and priorities of our Pentecostal brothers and sisters in Christ
    • It helps us think carefully about some of the claims and closing off to the work of the Spirit by our Baptist brothers and sisters
    • It informs the priorities of our worship -> things that build up, encourage, comfort, and convict
    • It shows the apostolic emphasis on clear communication. That applies to how we worship, teach, preach, etc.
      • For example, Bible translations. For most people today, the KJV might as well be speaking tongues. For me to teach from that would be to obscure the Word of God.
      • Likewise it informs how I preach – I’m always going to do my best to make sure you understand God’s Word before we apply God’s Word
      • And in the process that helps you discern if what I’m saying is true

Next week: 1 Corinthians 14: 26-40