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Well friends, Good morning to you, it’s Saturday June 22, and that means the weekend is upon us, YEAH!!
But I sure hope Saturday is NOT a “take a break from the Bible” day for you! Today we’re in 1 Corinthians 14 and it’s a very important chapter.
As we know Paul wrote this letter to Christians in the wild city of Corinth. He had been the one to lead most of them to trust in Jesus Christ and take their initial steps of spiritual growth, during the 18 months he spent in Corinth (Acts 18:11). But that was some time ago. Paul had moved on to other towns to share the Gospel, and was now in Ephesus (Acts 19) and having heard some troubling reports of some crazy things going on among the Corinthian Christians, Paul writes this letter to try and straighten out some very strange thinking and behavior in Corinth.
May I invite you to read 1 Corinthians 14 first, and then let me share some perspective with you on what I think Paul is saying, and then read it a second time. It’s that important today, because this is a prevalent issue in churches around the world.
Ok, I’ll assume you just read the chapter.. . now let’s dig in.
First. . . Paul uses this word “tongues” many times in these verses. What is he talking about? If you replace the word ‘tongues’ with 2 words ‘foreign languages’, it will make more sense. All of us speak, read & write English. Some of us are bi-lingual, meaning you can also read, write and speak fluently, another language. That’s me, as you may know, because I grew up in Haiti, so I am fluent in Haitian Creole. Perhaps a select few of us are ‘tri-lingual’ meaning you can do that in three languages.
In Acts 2:1-12 we have the original ‘tongues’ experience. It was the annual Jewish festival, Pentecost, and from all around the Roman Empire thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of Jews, had traveled to Jerusalem for this week long celebration. Greek was the common language all across the empire. The Hebrew language, was fairly common among Jews, especially in and around Israel. Aramaic was spoken in Galilee. But for that week dozens, maybe scores of other languages were heard in Jerusalem. Acts 2 tells us the Holy Spirit came upon the followers of Jesus, and they were suddenly enabled to speak languages they did not know. The crowds were ‘amazed and perplexed’, as they heard Jews from Galilee speaking the Gospel, the truths about Jesus, in languages unknown in Galilee, but languages easily understood by those from far away, gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost.
Do you see BOTH the remarkable miracle of fluency in languages AND cross-cultural communication of the Gospel to people who had not heard it before. It was a remarkable strategic plan of God. Acts 2 says that as Peter explained what was happening 3000 people believed in the Gospel and were Baptized! Do you understand the miraculous Holy Spirit anointed “Tongues gift”, the ability to speak in a legitimate foreign language that you do not understand?
Lest you think this was a unique, one time experience, move forward a few months, to Acts 10. Remember? Peter goes to Caesarea, to a Gentile, Roman Centurion’s home. There he explains the Gospel to a gathering of Gentiles, contrary to all Jewish protocol, and many of them trust in Jesus Christ for salvation…and they begin to speak in ‘tongues’, languages they did not know, just as had happened in Acts 2. (Acts 10:44-47)
You may recall in Acts 11 Peter was called to account by the other Apostles, and Jewish Christians, for having gone into a Gentile home, and presenting them the Gospel, and especially for baptizing them. He responded “…if God gave them the same gift as He gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think I could oppose God.” And then it says “When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God saying, ‘God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.” (Acts 11:17,18)
Do you understand these two examples of ‘tongues’ my friends? Identical experiences… people trusting Jesus for Salvation and given a sudden Holy Spirit gifting, to speak the Gospel in languages they did not know, but languages people present there could understand.
Now…this is very important. As we have followed the story of Acts and the planting of the church of Jesus Christ, in town after town, there is no mention that this was the experience in everyplace. It should NOT be understood, that the Bible shows us, that when a person authentically is born again, they will give proof of their salvation, by speaking in a language they do not know. It is recorded these two times for very specific reasons.
Corinth was a major business port, attracting ships and caravans from all over the known world. It would make sense, therefore, that God might repeat this miracle in that setting to cross language barriers and validate the authentic salvation experience and even connect Corinthian Christians with those Christians who experienced salvation and ‘tongues’ in Jerusalem and Caesarea. Luke does not record it as happening in Acts 18 when Paul was in Corinth for 18 months, but the absence of a record does not mean it didn’t happen.
By the time we get to 1 Corinthians 12 & 14, clearly something is happening… but what? There was mass confusion. As the Christians in Corinth gathered for times of prayer, communion and worship, evidently people would suddenly stand and start jabbering, but the sounds they made were both not understood by the person who made the sounds, nor by anyone else in the room. Yet some people thought this was a work of the Holy Spirit and a repeat of Acts 2 & 10 and so they celebrated, and that escalated the problem, and it simply got out of control. Thus you see Paul’s very clear and strong instructions in 1 Corinthians 14.
First . . ., Paul makes it clear the gift of “prophecy” is far more important than a gift of ‘tongues’, and he explains why. With the ‘tongues’ or ‘foreign language’ gift, the person speaking does not know what they are saying, since he doesn’t understand the language, the only people in the room who can make sense of what person is saying, are those who may know the language, thus it’s both disruptive and confusing to everyone except that one or a few people who know the language. But to the person who ‘prophecies’, they do so in the language everyone knows, so all benefit.
By the way the word here “prophecy” is not foretelling something that will happen in the future. “Prophecy” here means “forth telling“, declaring or proclaiming the truths of God with an appeal to the people to repent of their spiritual drifting, and turn back to God in obedience to God’s truth which has just been spoken. Do you understand that? Not “foretelling“, predicting the future, but ‘forth telling‘, proclamation of the truth of God which calls people from drift, back to God.
Can you understand Paul’s clear priority on “prophecy” and his caution against “tongues”?
Second. . . Paul writes “He who prophecies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified.” (1 Cor. 14:5). Remember ALL gifting from the Holy Spirit is for the edification, the benefit, the building up of the people of God, the Church. Here Paul says unless someone INTERPRETS what the person says in ‘tongues’ (a foreign language), it’s wasted noise, since no one present understands that language. That makes sense, right? So Paul writes in 1 Cor. 14:27,28 “If anyone speaks in a tongue (foreign language)...someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church..”
Now we get that don’t we? Without interpretation, if you don’t understand the language spoken, the words are wasted.
We’ve seen pictures of the Ambassadors sitting in the United Nations, all with earphones on, while someone is speaking. What’s happening? The speaker is speaking in their native language, but in the audience are people who don’t know that language, so to be sure they understand exactly what is being said, there is someone interpreting for them. The interpreter knows BOTH the language being spoken and the language of the listener, and is interpreting from one language to the other, with clarity. We understand that, right?
That’s why Paul writes “Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying…Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church.” (1 Cor. 14:9,12).
Then Paul writes, “Tongues, then, are a sign NOT for believers but for UNbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers and not for unbelievers.” (1 Cor. 14:22) The foreign language miracle, is for people who do not know the Gospel, and will hear it in their language, but spoken by a Christian who does not know their language! Prophecy is a call to Christians to turn back to God and His truth, spoken by a Christian, in the language all of them know. Is this clear my friends?
Finally may I point out one other important part of 1 Corinthians 14. It’s verses 33-35. Paul says God is a God of peace, not disorder. Then he makes some strong statements about women being silent when the church gathers together, and to ask their husbands their spiritual questions at home. What do you think of that?
This is another of those culturally distinctive statements from Paul. In the first century, throughout the Roman empire, men had great value. Women, married or single, did not. Women had no voice and no vote. Many were uneducated, as they had few, if any opportunities for school. It was the very rare woman who had any public role. Lydia, the dealer of purple cloth in Philippi, was an exception. But God loves women, Jesus died equally for women and for men, for both have equal value, ‘made in God’s image’. We discussed that the other day in 1 Corinthians 11.
So it was important the Corinthian church shared the Gospel with woman, and welcomed them into the church, as members of God’s family. It would also be normal for these women to have many questions, but Paul’s instruction is to keep order in the church AND to challenge the men to pay attention and learn Spiritual truths, to grow and mature spiritually, so they could be the spiritual leaders of their homes, and teach their wives and children God’s truths.
In our day, education is equally available to girls and boys. Women are urged to study God’s Word, and mature spiritually just as men. In fact, in many families, I’m sure you’ve seen the wife/mother is more spiritually developed and mature than the husband/dad. That’s not an excuse for us my brothers, it’s a challenge for us to grow spiritually so we can lead our families spiritually.
OK friends, we’ve covered a lot of ground today… thank you! Have a great day… read 1 Corinthians 14 again.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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