Today we'll be in one corinthians chapter 14. So I invite you to turn there as I remind you about the jacked up place that the corinthian church was. Paul is writing this letter because they're immature, childish believers who need to be reminded of the gospel, be reminded that Jesus. Paul says, I resolve to know nothing but Christ and him crucified.
And so throughout the letter, he's called the corinthian church to unity. And though today we're talking about tongues and prophecy, you woke up this morning and you're like, I'm going to go learn about tongues and prophecy. Yes, that is what we're learning today. There is a bigger theme, there's a bigger thread through this passage that is in line with that theme of unity. And putting aside division, Paul ends chapter twelve by saying, earnestly desire the higher gifts which are given by God for his purposes, powered by God, and are for the common good of God's church.
In chapter 13, he talks about love, and that's the one we often hear at weddings. But Alex so helpfully reminded us a couple years ago, that's the main ingredient. Love is the main ingredient that powers the gifts. The gifts are going to pass away, but love will not pass away. And so then, as he begins this next section of his letter, he brings those two concepts together and says, pursue love and earnestly desire the gifts.
Let me say that again. Pursue love and earnestly desire the gifts, Paul helps us walk out what it looks like to use our gifts in love for the building up of the church. By using the two gifts that the corinthian church was actually the most concerned about in the first place, which were tongues and prophecy. There's a lot of stuff in this text. There's a lot of things that we could look at.
So I want to give you the thread that Paul is weaving through this section, then unpack the text and give us some practical things to apply the text at the end. Here's our big idea. Pursue love. Desire the gifts, build up the church.
Paul spends these 25 verses providing motivation, but also encouraging clear action. Looking through this text, we'll use this question to help us keep the thread clear. To build up or not to build up, that is the question.
Point one, we have some ground rules for building up. Let's read God's word together, pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God, for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now, I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets so that the church may be built up.
What we see here is that Paul sets some ground rules for the practice of specific gifts that in context must be applied to all the gifts. He says, first, pursue love. Remember in chapter twelve we talked about the corinthian church thinking more of the outwardly expressive gifts. They put the outwardly expressive gifts on a pedestal. They were like, these are the ones we want to desire.
And Paul comes in and is like, no, you're missing the point. God has given all the gifts for the purpose of building his church. So there's not anything wrong with the desiring of the gifts. Paul tells us to do that, but there is something wrong if we're motivated by self glorification or selfish desires.
So as we understand that as the backdrop, let's look to understand prophecy in tongues in the gathering. Like Paul encouraged the corinthian church, Paul makes clear that tongues in prophecy are gifts that that the Lord has given and then defines the purpose of these gifts. In the context of the gathering, tongues and prophecy are meant to build up the church. Tongues, as we've seen over the last couple of weeks, can be really helpful in our personal walks with the Lord. They can be helpful in personal worship. Building up the believer, as Paul says, it's a gift given to some and always for the glory of God.
Paul says, I want you all to speak in tongues. But what Paul says here is that tongues as private worship isn't what is appropriate when exercised in front of the assembly. The ground rule that he lays for tongues in the gathering is that the tongue must be interpreted so that the church may be built up. Look at that. Why again, that the church must be built up five times in this passage.
He's talking about the upbuilding and the building up of the church, which is why I think it's important to see that thread. Paul also gives us really specific directions for prophecy, and Ricky is going to give us a lot of practicals about that next week in the next section of this letter. But prophecy is used for building up, for encouragement, for consolation. All of these things are building up the church. These are specific categories in which prophecy may be exercised in the gathering so that what the church may be built up.
So as he's provided some ground rules, he has also provided us some guardrails for exercising these gifts. Let's look again at our text starting in verse six.
6 · The pastor reads 1 Corinthians 14:6-19 in full, bringing the congregation into Paul's extended argument about intelligibility in worship
Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? Even if lifeless instruments such as the flute or harp do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is being played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves? If with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said?
For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning. But if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker, and a speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves, since you're eager for the manifestations of the spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.
For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also. I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say amen to your thanksgiving when he doesn't know what you're saying?
For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue.
7 · The pastor steps outside the expositional flow to give personal testimony of his shift from cessationism to continuationism
I was a staunch cessationist for most of my life. I have long agreed with the truth that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, coexisting and proceeding from God the Father and God the Son for all eternity. I have agreed with the work of the Holy Spirit in creating and sustaining the world, the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation, in justification and sanctification, and in the occasional miraculous healing. I would have also, however, held a very strong view that the bestowing of gifts of the Spirit, particularly the most extraordinary gifts, ceased upon the closing of the canon. That was my view. I would have argued a slow disappearance of these gifts through the book of acts. But my most vehement argument would be a survey of sinful humanity's application and abuse of the gifts in the name of the Spirit.
I would argue from a place of certain denominations requiring speaking in tongues for the evidence of salvation. Or I'd argue, some really clearly egregious abuses of the spiritual. As I started seeking proof of the ongoing, personal and specific ministry of the Holy Spirit, I was confronted by the words of Paul that we've read today saying, earnestly desire the gifts, especially prophesy. If I am to apply what I believe about the doctrine of scripture, it's perspicuity, big word that means clarity and under ease of understanding. If I'm to believe what in the sufficiency of scripture today, as it was in the original context, I needed to be honest about my reading of this text.
The context of the corinthian church absolutely matters. But in understanding what Paul was after in this letter, and understanding what he's saying in the full context of scripture, I had to believe he meant what he said. What he didn't say was earnestly desire the gifts, especially prophecy, until the canon is closed. In fact, he goes on to talk about how the gifts, like prophecy and tongues, are to be exercised in the life of the local church. He puts guardrails in place, place for the church to follow.
He's very careful to talk about the gifts, edifying and building up the church. He speaks of the category of order in worship. As I read these things with fresh eyes, I started thinking about all the ways that I had seen the gifts abused or misused in my life. What I realized is that what I saw was a direct result of sinful humanity, not design flaws on God's part. I saw that God was against the misuse and abuse of the gifts, too.
8 · Structural pivot moving from personal testimony back into exposition, signaling the first specific guardrail category
So let's look at some of these guardrails together. Clarity and intelligibility in building up.
9 · The pastor unpacks Paul's musical instrument analogy, establishing the first guardrail: uninterpreted tongues fail the intelligibility test and therefore cannot edify
First of all, uninterpreted tongues in the gathering are improper because they're not understood by the hearer. I love the illustration Paul uses here because I'm a musician. This makes total sense to me.
Me. He uses the flute and the harp, both melodic instruments, and says, if you don't organize the notes, no one will know what is being played.
10 · The pastor performs a live demonstration with the piano, first playing random notes (unintelligible) then playing a recognizable hymn (intelligible)
So let me, let's, let's do a little bit of music here. I'm gonna I'm gonna start playing, and I want you to just start singing. Okay?
You guys ready? You sure?
Nobody has any idea this is a modern day harp, right? But if I were to do something like this. Let's sing God of wonders together. God of wonders beyond our galaxy? You are holy, holy? The universe declares your majesty's holy? You are holy, holy?
Oh, Lord of heaven Lord of heaven one more time. Lord of heaven Lord of heaven it makes all the difference in the world when you have directions, right? When we have something that's clear and intelligible and organized in a way that makes sense, it's silly, but what happened when I was clear? We got first happy birthday, I guess, right? But in clarity, with some direction and some organization of the notes, you knew what to do, and we could do it all together.
And I don't know about you, but I was built up during that moment where we're glorifying our lord together.
11 · The pastor unpacks Paul's second musical analogy—the bugle—by providing historical and cultural context for how specific, organized sounds carried specific meanings in military and ceremonial contexts
Paul then talks about my favorite of all the instruments, a trumpet. In the original greek, this would have been. This is your music history moment for the morning. This would have been known as the salpinx, which is like a long tube with a bell at the end and a mouthpiece that was held up by a chain.
And it's not melodic, but it's definitely loud and heraldy. It would have been used in sporting events for the announcements of royalty and for calling troops to particular formations and activities in battle. So while modern technology has made the need for the particular bugle calls relatively obsolete, we hear things like the call to post. We know this tune that's now at horse races, but originally that was the signal for soldiers to prepare to gather before the raising of the flag. In the morning, we hear reveille, which is the bugle call at around sunrise, used as a wake up call.
Probably the most famous we currently still experience would be taps. I'm going to play it tomorrow in front of my house. Taps is played as a lights out call, but also at funerals and ceremonies and memorial of the fallen. I could play any number of notes on a trumpet, but unless they're organized into something memorable, they don't mean anything.
12 · The pastor synthesizes Paul's musical analogies into the controlling principle: intelligibility is non-negotiable in corporate worship because chaos does not build up the church
Here's Paul's point. When tongues or prophecy are practiced in the gathering, they must be intelligible and clear. They must bring revelation or knowledge or teaching. They must be organized. Ricky, again, he's going to preach on this, on the particulars of this next week and how we might walk this out in our gathering. But Paul is pretty clear here that chaos is not the goal I heard a sermon once by Chuck Smith, who started Calvary Chapel and was super instrumental in the Jesus movement, where he said this, and I'm paraphrasing, we have to be careful not to blame things on the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit can do a whole mess of things that we don't expect or understand, but what we do know is that he will work in line with his word. God is a God of order and unity, not disorder and disunity. And Paul affirms this. So anyone who claims to have a word of revelation or knowledge and teaching must submit to what is in God's word. We must submit that and test it by what has already been revealed in scripture.
That's our guideline. To assume otherwise would be to cause division and confusion and disunity in the body. Which again, is that building up? No, it's the opposite.
13 · Structural signal shifting to the second guardrail category
Which brings us to unity in building up.
14 · The pastor extrapolates from tongues and prophecy to all gifts, establishing that none of the gifts—when properly exercised—produce division
Let's extrapolate this out a little bit from tongues in prophecy. Do any of these gifts lend themselves to division or disunity? Teaching, administration, service helps tongues prophecy. Any of these things? No.
They are all to be walked out for the building up of the church. So here's a warning. Do you find yourself speaking in a way that sows disunity or division? This is different from disagreement. Paul is really clear throughout his letter that, especially among believers, we must be careful to fight for the unity won through Christ.
Watching our motivations and our words carefully. Now, this warning may seem out of place, but let's look at what Paul says in verse twelve. Look in your copy of the scriptures with me, so with yourselves, since you are eager for the manifestations of the spirit. Strive to excel in building up the church.
This is the second time in this section that Paul calls attention to our behavior. Paul knows his audience. They're quick to lash out, to sow discord to degree with selfish motive, disagree with selfish motives. The first time Paul calls his audience and us to action is in verse one, where he says, pursue love. That's an action item.
Now he says, strive to excel in building up the church. If we're practicing the gifts, any of the gifts with selfish motives, seeking to draw attention to ourselves, pursuing self love instead of love of God and others. If we're acting in a way that is contrary to the building of the church, we are by definition not excelling in this area.
15 · The pastor expounds Paul's list of activities (speech, prayer, singing, thanksgiving) to establish the third guardrail: building up requires outward focus and audible participation in corporate worship
Really interesting. So which moves us into this outward and interacting, interactive building up. Building up the church requires outward focus and interaction with other people. Look what Paul uses as an example here he says speech, prayer, singing, praise, and thanksgiving. Basically. He's not saying that these things are not personally edifying. He's saying if the purpose of us doing these things in the gathering is to build one another up, we should do them out loud. In the context of the book and the rest of scripture, it is clear that if we are seeking to do these things out loud in a way that's drawing unnecessary attention to ourselves, we do these things in error. But Paul still says, if you're not doing these things out loud, you might be giving thanks. But how can anyone else be built up if they can't hear or understand you can?
I use singing as an example for this. We've talked about this a lot, and we really seek to make the songs we sing available to the congregation for the purpose of being able to sing together. And I get sometimes feeling uncomfortable singing. But to stand here and sing like this, and I'm not thinking of anybody in particular, because I do this sometimes, too. To stand here and just read the words, you may be just letting the truth wash over you and just being so excited about what you and the Lord are doing, but if we're to build one another up, you're depriving the people around you of your voice that the Lord has given you.
To build others up, man, what a great opportunity to build other people up. Same thing I can imagine. I think that person needs prayer, and then you pray for them, man, that glorifies God. But how awesome would it be if you actually went over to that person and prayed for them this morning? Build one another up with your gifts.
You've been given a gift, so build up the church with those gifts.
16 · Brief structural signal shifting to the fourth guardrail category
Now, I like this one building up. I mean, I like all of them, but this one's an interesting one. Building up in mind and spirit.
17 · The pastor introduces the mind-spirit balance by confessing his own tendency toward the intellectual, then brings in Prior's commentary to establish Paul's concern: the Corinthians were bypassing the mind entirely, devaluing rational engagement with truth
I have a tendency to, like, lean towards building up in mind. I like intellectual things. I like thinking deeply about facts and talking about facts. So we see here Paul's admonition to be mature in our thoughts and actions as you practice the gifts. Here's what commentator prior says. The corinthian tendency was not to be over cerebral, but to devalue the importance of the mind.
Paul is concerned, therefore, to stress manifestations of the spirit which do not bypass the mind. Speaking in tongues has real benefit for the individual, but his mind is unfruitful. Paul wants the Christians at Corinth to be mature in their thinking. That requires exercising their minds through the spirit to the full extent of their abilities. He mentions five areas of christian living where this needs to be done, in prayer, in singing, in thanksgiving, in catechesis or instruction, and in thinking.
The Christian who does not allow the spirit to stretch and renew his mind in these five ways is resisting the work of God in sanctification, in wholeness. There were many believers at Corinth whose experience of the spirit was confined to manifestations which bypassed the mind entirely. Paul expresses his own firm resolve to pray, saying give thanks with the spirit and with the mind. Also, he is so concerned to build up the church that he would far rather use a few intelligible wise words to instruct christians in the faithful than 10,000 in a tongue. On the other hand, the imbalances of Christians at Corinth led Paul to stress a proper balance between the rational and the non rational, not to place one over against the other.
The plea for maturity in verse 20 seems to hark back to the strong remarks about immaturity at Corinth made towards the beginning of the letter.
18 · The pastor connects Paul's instruction to contemporary Western culture, asserting that modern believers face the same imbalance as Corinth (prioritizing non-rational experience and self-gratification) despite superficial differences (intellectual podcasts and philosophy tours)
Look, so I probably have the opposite problem of Corinth. I want to be intellectual with a lot of my things, and I kind of bypassed the non rational things. Not open to that. But Corinth was the opposite. But our culture isn't profoundly different from the corinthian culture, is it? There's absolutely intellectual groups, right? Think of the podcasts and the philosophy tours. But an obsession with the glorification of the self has largely left the western culture chasing ease and comfort and entertainment for the benefit of ourselves over any desire for the common good and building up of others. Paul's call to the Corinthian church is a super helpful way to wake up, to wake us up as well.
In our culture, which are you? Are you more in the rational world or the non rational world? Paul calls us to bring those two things together. We need both of those things, the mind and the spirit, emotion and intellect.
19 · Structural pivot from guardrails to the gifts' evangelistic function, signaling the sermon's movement into the final section of the passage
So let's move into the gifts themselves for building up. Start in verse 21 with me as we read
20 · The pastor reads 1 Corinthians 14:21-25, bringing the congregation into Paul's argument about the evangelistic impact of tongues versus prophecy when unbelievers are present
in the law. It's written by people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners. I will speak to this people, and even they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Thus tongues are not a sign for believers are a sign not for believers, but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?
But if all prophesy when an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all. He is called to account by all. The secrets of his heart are disclosed and so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
21 · The pastor establishes the dual nature of gathered worship: primarily for believers around Word and Sacrament, but also containing evangelistic opportunities because unbelievers will be present
I find this interesting on a couple of levels. The gathering of the church is primarily a gathering of believers around word and sacrament, around the truth of the gospel. We gather to sing, to pray, to hear the word preached, to partake of baptism and communion, and to be sent into the world for the sake of the gospel. But Paul also makes an assumption here that there will be people in our gatherings that are unbelievers.
There's going to be evangelistic opportunities in the gathering, people who have not yet placed their hope and trust in Christ that join the gathering of the church.
22 · The pastor unpacks the Isaiah 28 quotation through Prior's commentary, establishing that uninterpreted tongues function as a negative sign—they confirm unbelievers in their unbelief by appearing as madness
So there's a couple of important observations here. First of all, the beginning of verse 21 is a quote from Isaiah, chapter 28. Here's what prior says about tongues as a sign for unbelievers. The text from Isaiah 28:11 and 12. And even more, the wider context in Isaiah 28 as a whole indicates what kind of sign Paul has in mind, both there and in verse 23. He's showing that the impact of those on those without a living faith in God, of speaking in unintelligible tongues, is to confirm them in their unbelief. The very fact of unintelligibility feeds their unregenerate minds and stubborn wills. And they conclude that christians are mad and have nothing new or true to offer.
So imagine we're all in the gathering and a bunch of us are speaking in tongues. Maybe like just worshiping to the Lord, and we're just being edified in our spirit, and everybody's just speaking in tongues. There's no interpretation. We're not following. The guardrails that follow is set in front of us, and somebody walks in that has no idea what we're doing. They're like, I thought these people were crazy, and they are. Out we go, right? I mean, that's what we see sometimes, isn't it? Not following the guardrails and guidelines that Paul has set forth, that the Lord has put around these gifts. We see that tongues for someone without a living faith in God may confirm for them, for the unregenerate, that christians seem to be nuts. But it also helps the church see that we need to be aware of others.
We need to have an others focus when we gather. Sometimes we have this tendency to be like the church. Gathering is for the church, yes, and amen. But also there are opportunities for the gospel here. It can't just be a me and God experience.
23 · The pastor transitions from the negative example (tongues confirming unbelief) to the positive (prophecy producing conversion)
When we gather by way of application. Paul hammers home the point that the gifts are to be used to build up the church. He moves to prophecy and shows why prophecy can be helpful. It's to be practiced by believers and will benefit both believers and unbelievers. This is a real gospel moment.
Here we remember that prophecy is to be clear and intelligible. It will always reveal truth about God. In this case, Paul says that by prophecy an unbeliever may be convicted of their sin, the secrets of their heart may be revealed, and they will fall down in worship of the one true God.
24 · The pastor shifts to direct evangelistic address, naming unbelievers in the room and narrating what they have witnessed in the service: a gathered people transformed by grace, singing gospel truth, praying gospel-saturated prayers, and sitting under God's Word
So look, you may be here this morning, and you would fall in the category of the unbeliever. Let me describe to you what you've seen this morning. You've seen God gather a family of believers by his word. You've seen a whole mess of people in this room whose lives have been changed radically and dramatically by the saving grace of Jesus. This room is full of people who have been confronted with the pain and damage of their own sin and realize that their sin would cause them to be eternally separated from God. This gathered church has repented and believed in Christ, and now we'll spend eternity living with him.
You've heard us sing and proclaim that the wrath of God has been satisfied by the blood of Christ. We've proclaimed the gospel in song together. You've heard us pray gospel saturated prayers, prayers informed by what Christ has done. And now you're sitting under the priest's word.
25 · The pastor delivers a full gospel presentation to unbelievers, moving from diagnosis (universal sinfulness and separation from God) to remedy (God's mercy and grace in Christ) to call (confess, repent, believe)
Paul says there might be an opportunity in the gathering for people to place their hope and trust in Jesus. So here it is. There is none righteous, no, not one. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Living lives and unrepentant sin keeps us separated from God, with no hope for an eternity with him. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive together with Christ. It's by grace you have been saved, not of your own doing, so that you couldn't take credit for it. It's the free gift of God.
God's word says if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. My encouragement to you. If you're here and you're in that category of unbeliever, is don't wait today. Place your hope and faith in Christ. This is the greatest miracle of all miracles.
You've heard the gospel sung and preached and prayed. Be confronted by the gravity of your sin and turn to the mercy of Christ. If that's you today. There's nothing magical in a prayer, but can I just lead you in a prayer? If this is you, say, Lord, I'm a sinner.
I realize that my sin keeps me separate from you, but I trust in the saving grace of Jesus. I repent of my sins and I want to follow Jesus for the rest of my life. I place my faith in you today.
And look, we're not going to do an altar call. If that's you, tell somebody. Tell somebody about that. Let us walk alongside you.
26 · Structural pivot from evangelistic address back to believers, re-orienting the congregation to the sermon's controlling question and reminding them of their participation in Christ's church-building work
Church. Remember this. Gathered believers, remember this. Jesus is building his church and it is a privilege and a joy to walk alongside him in that this is what frames our lives as christians. Remember that question from the beginning. To build up or not to build up.
27 · The pastor introduces the application section by calling for movement from intellectual assent ('heads') through affection ('hearts') to action ('hands')
As we near the end of our time together, let's ask the Lord to help us move from what Paul is saying. Move what Paul is saying from our heads down to our hearts and into our hands. From an intellectual exercise, let's move to action that is motivated by love. So again, to build up or not to build up, the application is simple. Repeat after me. Pursue love. Earnestly desire the gifts.
Build up the church. If you remember nothing else today, remember those words, because those are not my words. Those are God's words. That's our application.
28 · The pastor develops the first application point—'pursue love'—by moving the congregation through the head-heart-hands progression
Pursuing love may seem an odd application because it was only two words in these 25 verses. But remember the groundwork laid in chapter 13. Pursuing love is part of the motivation. It sets the stage for building up. It's an action step. It's something that we do as christians.
Move this from your head to your heart with me. Is it right to love other people? Sure. Absolutely. Is it also easy to be offended by other people?
Is it easy to walk into this building carrying an offense, having had an interaction with a person that maybe didn't go well, and to just ignore them so you can have a nice Sunday with Jesus? Absolutely. It is also, yes.
Move this now from your heart to your hands, from feeling to action. Throughout scripture, it's clear that offense and resentment harm the body of Christ. It is true that it's really hard to stay engaged in relationships that have been broken by offense. Both of those things are true and God knows it. He's not surprised by it.
So let's look for a moment and feel free to turn there to one. Corinthians 13, chapter 13 verse four, just right above where we are right now. Let me read what Paul says about love, letting it be informed by what we just talked about. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast.
It is not arrogant or rude. It love does not insist on its own way. It's not irritable or resentful. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. Church endures all things.
Man, how do you put this in a practical way? Because it's easy for that to us to go like, yep, totally agree with that. Feel that, brother. Awesome. But how do we put that into action?
29 · The pastor provides concrete application of pursuing love through Jesus's command in Matthew 5:23-24
Let's just take one example that Jesus gives in the sermon on the mount. Matthew 523 says this. Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there, remember that your brother or sister has something against you, just ignore it. No, that's not what God says. He says, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them. Then come offer your gift.
Isn't that hard? Isn't that difficult? Imagine you're coming to church and you're like, man, I cannot wait to serve the Lord with my gifts. But you've been in this conflict with somebody for years, so much so that you won't even talk to them. You're like, I see him this way. I don't know if this is happening, but I'm just going to say it.
The Lord would say, leave your gift. Go be reconciled, then come serve. Wow. Jesus is pretty clear that relationships matter in terms of building the church. They require us not to just say we believe that love matters, not just to feel it in our hearts that love matters, but to take steps to make sure that our relationships are marked by unity and love and reconciliation.
Are you harboring an offense against someone right now? Today's the day. Go be reconciled to your brother. Go be reconciled to your sister. It may be hard work, but it's the first step and the groundwork for using your gifts well.
30 · Structural signal shifting from the first application point (pursue love) to the second (desire the gifts)
So next, desire the gifts. Earnestly desire the gifts. We've walked through the reconciliation path. We've understood the motivation of love. Now we can desire the gifts.
31 · The pastor addresses cessationist resistance by first naming it sympathetically (acknowledging charismatic abuses), then dismantling it through the rational-non-rational framework established earlier
Are you like 20 something year old? John? You read this text, you're like, I see the highlight reel of all the crazy I've seen in my life from the charismatics. All that crazy stuff runs in your head and you're like, heck no, I'm out. Thanks, Paul.
Let me just press here just for a moment. Don't allow the sinful abuses or misuses of sinful humanity to deprive you of the good gifts given by God. Here's what I love about what Pryor said in that quote from earlier. The imbalances of the Christians at Corinth led Paul to stress a proper balance between the rational and the non rational.
The rational and the non rational. Let me be bold here. I think we probably tend more towards the opposite of what Corinth was struggling with. They all desired the non rational gifts at the expense of the rational ones. But I think we can look at the gifts like teaching administration helps service leadership, and go, yeah, I can totally see how that would be helpful in preserving unity and building the church.
Those make total sense to me. But when it comes to anything that would go in maybe the non rational category, we're like, miss me with that. We put the brakes on. We put it in a different category. We don't even consider them.
I just have to say, when it comes to rationality, there's a lot about our faith that, that just frankly isn't rational and for sure supernatural when it comes to the world's perspective. We're so quick to put things like tongues in prophecy into the category of non rational because in a lot of ways they don't make sense to us. I heard Matt Chandler, a pastor in Dallas, quoted this week saying, we believe that a virgin gave birth to the Son of God, floated into heaven, and is coming down on a white horse to judge the living and the dead. We've already drunk the Kool Aid. Let's jump all in.
There's no more profound a miracle than God taking dead souls and making them alive. This is the greatest miracle in the world, and it doesn't seem rational. How many times have we seen stories of people radically changed by the gospel? And you're like, that guy. God saved that guy.
I can't. What I loved about one of our former pastors, Tom Wilkins, is he would. We'd be talking and we'd be talking about the gospel and he'd go, he'd go, Johnny. One of the few in El pastor who still gets to call me Johnny. He goes, Johnny, I can't believe that God saved me.
I don't know what he was thinking. Gosh, what a miracle it is that God brings dead people to life. And it's a lot of times the people we don't expect, present company included. Remember, Paul says, desire the gifts because they're beneficial, desire prophecy because it's meant to encourage, to build up, to console, to comfort. Prophecy is a way that God uses for his uses to remind his people that he cares about them now.
32 · The pastor provides concrete action for cessationists or those uncomfortable with non-rational gifts: a model prayer acknowledging discomfort while submitting to Scripture's command
So my encouragement to you who have your foot on the brake and a seatbelt firmly fastened, is ask the Lord to help you desire the gifts in a biblical way. Acknowledge where you struggle to the Lord. Maybe the prayer looks something like this. Lord, this is super strange to me. This feels really weird.
But I want to do what Paul says and earnestly desire the gifts, like he told the Corinthian church. Would you help me with that and just see what the Lord does? Be open to what the spirit will do in your life, knowing that it's going to be guarded by scripture.
33 · The pastor shifts to address those who experienced the Jesus Movement and saw dramatic moves of the Spirit, calling them not to abandon desire for the gifts but to share their stories with the current generation
Briefly, you may be here, and you lived through the Jesus movement. You remember the hippies coming in droves to be baptized, coming to faith by the hundreds. You may be here and you remember people being healed. You remember that. You remember being given the gift of tongues.
Maybe you're here and you remember services where somebody would come and pray and be giving words of knowledge for people. And you long for that to be here today. If that's you, don't stop earnestly desiring the gifts, especially that you may prophesy. Can I also encourage you to tell the stories? Tell us those stories.
I've been so served by two of our pastors, Chuck and Joe, by just sitting with them and hearing the stories of the Lord moving in the seventies, having these groups of high school and college kids studying the Bible together, growing, growing, growing and turning into churches all over our city. How cool is that? Chuck and Joe have told me countless times how they were drawn to faith in Christ. Miraculously, if you are here and you've seen God genuinely working in this way, would you tell us? The stories remind us that the word of God is active.
It's sharper than any two edged sword. And the Holy Spirit is at work in the minds and hearts and actions of believers even today. You can build us up. You can encourage us in our earnest desiring of the gifts.
34 · Brief structural signal shifting to the third and final application point
To that end, build the church.
35 · The pastor identifies the two primary enemies of church building: gossip and selfishness
There are two things that I've seen clearly break down the church rather than build up the church. And those two things are gossip and selfishness. Paul has shown us that the building of the church and the power of the Holy Spirit consists of others focused actions motivated by love of others rather than love of ourselves. The motivation is the building up of Christ's church. The action is the building up of Christ's church.
So regularly ask the question, to build or not to build is what I'm about to partake in building or not building. And this is the church at large. This is our church. This is any church, right? We got PCs season coming up, right?
A bunch of you all are going to be in other churches. Build those churches, man. So is our motivation for using our gifts to build ourselves up or to let others know how amazing we are? This would fall under the selfishness category. Or do we want to use our gifts to see God glorified in his body?
That's the selfless, others focused love that Paul is talking about.
36 · The pastor develops the gossip warning through the kudzu illustration (invasive, pervasive, destructive despite attractive appearance) and then provides the 'reverse gossip' strategy from his wife: actively redirect gossip conversations by speaking well of the person being discussed
Gossip. It's everywhere, isn't it? It's in the workplace, it's at home. Sometimes between siblings, it's in the family, it's in the church. It is everywhere. It's like, there's this weed in Tennessee called Kudzu. And I remember driving into Natchez Tre state park and seeing this beautiful green everywhere. And my parents were like, that green everywhere you can see is this weed that's just killing the forest. I'm like, is.
But it's so pretty. They're like, but it's killing everything and they can't get rid of it. That's what gossip is. Okay. My wife Ashley has this great phrase that she's been using lately that she got from a popular writer.
She wanted me to tell you that it's not her own. She got it from a popular writer, and she calls it reverse gossip. The principle is this. You're in a conversation that we've all been in, and it starts to take that turn towards calling other people names, just talking about other people. There's no purpose to this, other than spilling the tea.
Talking about how terrible this person's hair is. Talking about how you couldn't believe they wore that. Talking about how you can't believe how terribly big John's nose is. Reverse gossip is this. In that moment, you take control of the conversation and you only say nice things that build the other person up.
Like, yeah, John does have a big nose, but I bet that makes colds way better because he's got more way to blow his nose. Clear it out. Okay, I'll stop. I won't use that one in the second service. But look, just say nice things about the other person.
Just. Just turn it. You'd be amazing at one of the two things that happens. One, the conversation shuts down because everybody just want to talk about other people. And now you're like, but that person's so nice.
And they're like, that's not what I was looking for. You just ruined the tea spilling session. Second, you may actually give people another perspective on the person they're bashing, making fun of, or frustrated with. Have you ever thought that this person might be struggling with this? Or have you ever seen how good this person is at this man?
That's actually a pretty decent rule for building up the church in general, isn't it? Regularly asking the question, is my motivation building the church or not building the church? Am I in a situation that's building the church or not building the church? When you ask that question, can I just encourage you? Always take the church building step.
Always take the relational repair step.
37 · The conclusion lifts the congregation's gaze from personal application to Christ's sovereign work in building his church
But also this. And with this, we're done. Also remember that the church is the bride of Christ. He will build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. He will help us in this sovereign grace. Statement of faith says this describes the work of the spirit and the life of the believer in the church beautifully. It says this, the filling of the spirit brings to God's people a deeper knowledge of Christ, an increased desire for holiness, a stronger commitment to unity and love, a greater fruitfulness in ministry, and a deeper gratitude for our salvation.
Let's pursue the gifts together. Let's pursue love. Let's build the church. Let's ask for the spirit's help.
38 · Closing prayer of consecration and dependence, restating the sermon's three application points as petitions and concluding with worship
Heavenly Father, thank you for the gifts that you've given, even the ones we don't really understand, for the building of the church. Lord, would you help us pursue love together? Would you help us desire the gifts together? Would you help us build your church together? Thank you that we're not alone in this. Lord, we worship you. And like we sing every single Sunday, there is one gospel, the gospel of Jesus.