DID YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?
I Corinthians 14:6-25
S: Tongues
C: Communication
Th: Orderly Worship
Pr: WE ARE TO BE CAREFUL COMMUNICATORS.
?: How? How do we practice careful communication?
KW: Concept
TS: In our study of I Corinthians 14:6-25, we will discover three concepts that will enable us to be careful communicators of God’s Word.
Type: Expository, Propositional
The ____ concept is…
I. MEANING (6-12)
II. THINKING (13-19)
III. BLESSING (20-25)
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• When considering tongues, the root meaning of “language” must give direction to your study.
• We are responsible to communicate clearly.
Version: ESV
RMBC 23 January 05 AM
INTRODUCTION:
Have you ever been confused by the language?
A new missionary recruit went to Venezuela for the first time. He was struggling with the language and didn’t understand a whole lot of what was going on. Intending to visit one of the local churches, he got lost, but eventually got back on track and found the place. Having arrived late, the church was already packed. The only pew left was the one on the front row.
So as not to make a fool of himself, he decided to pick someone out of the crowd to imitate. He chose to follow the man sitting next to him on the front pew. As they sang, the man clapped his hands, so the missionary recruit clapped too. When the man stood up to pray, the missionary recruit stood up too. When the man sat down, he sat down. When the man held the cup and bread for the Lord’s Supper, he held the cup and bread. During the preaching, the recruit didn’t understand a thing. He just sat there and tried to look just like that man in the front pew.
Then he perceived that the preacher was giving announcements. People clapped, so he looked to see if the man was clapping. He was, and so the recruit clapped too. Then the preacher said some words that he didn’t understand and he saw the man next to him stand up. So he stood up too. Suddenly a hush fell over the entire congregation. A few people gasped. He looked around and saw that nobody else was standing. So he sat down.
After the service ended, the preacher stood at the door shaking the hands of those who were leaving. When the missionary recruit stretched out his hand to greet the preacher, the preacher said, in English: "I take it you don’t speak Spanish."
The missionary recruit replied: "No I don’t. It’s that obvious?"
“Well yes," said the preacher, "I announced that the Acosta family had a newborn baby boy and would the proud father please stand up."
When you don’t know the language, it can be really confusing.
TRANSITION:
This is an issue we were discussing in last week’s study in I Corinthians 14.
We are in the second part of a three-part series on orderly worship.
And what we discovered, last week, was that…
1. In the corporate worship in Corinth, there was much confusion.
Because many of the Corinthians had a seeming flair for the dramatic, they were exercising the spiritual gift in tongues in excess.
Now, as a reminder, let us remember what spiritual gifts are.
Spiritual gifts are special abilities distributed by the Holy Spirit to every believer according to God’s design and grace for the common good of the body of Christ.
As you note by this definition, they are given to believers for the common good of the body.
In Corinth, though, the exercise of one particular gift – tongues – was causing division, not unity.
This was occurring because…
2. There was a misunderstanding of the nature and place of the spiritual gift of tongues.
Simply, the spiritual gift of tongues is the ability to speak a language that you have not learned.
The first appearance of tongues occurred in Acts 2.
People from all over the Roman empire had gathered for the Feast of Pentecost, and they heard the apostles speaking in their own language.
We learn some basic things about this first appearance.
First, it was a known foreign language, and they understood what the apostles were saying.
Second, it was evangelistic in purpose.
Its intention was to capture the attention of its hearers and to communicate truth to them.
This being said, it is also good to understand that…
3. Tongues would certainly have a place in cosmopolitan Corinth.
Corinth was a port city that was strategically located.
It was literally the crossroads of Greece, linking the eastern world to the western.
It would constantly be occupied by people of many nationalities that were traveling to another part of the world.
It was a place of many languages, and thus, a place where the gift of tongues would be, at times, highly useful.
The purpose of Paul’s writing in this section, though, is to show the superiority of another gift over the gift of tongues in the context of the church gathered for worship.
Paul says…
4. If there is any gift that is to be desired, it is prophecy.
The spiritual gift of prophecy is the ability (and responsibility) to speak the words God brings to mind.
The basic meaning of prophecy is the idea of forth-telling.
It is the idea of announcing.
As we noted last week, when we hear the word, we think more of foretelling.
But the telling of the future is not its basic meaning.
It is forth-telling, not foretelling.
Prophecy is the one gift Paul encourages us to seek.
He does so because communicating with clarity is greatly valued.
You see…
5. WE ARE TO BE CAREFUL COMMUNICATORS.
But how do we do that?
How do we practice careful communication?
Well…
6. In our study of I Corinthians 14:6-25, we will discover three concepts that will enable us to be careful communicators of God’s Word.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first concept is MEANING (6-12).
(6) 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? (7) If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? (8) And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? (9) 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. (10) There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, (11) but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. (12) So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
As this section begins, Paul reveals the inherent weakness of the gift of tongues.
He does so by comparing tongues to other ways of communicating, all of which (revelation, knowledge, prophecy, teaching) have the common denominator of intelligibility.
Demonstrating to us that…
1. Language is useless unless it means something.
I am able to make sounds and noises, but they will mean nothing to you unless you can attach thoughts and ideas to them.
They are ineffective and pointless.
Paul uses an analogy of musical instruments to demonstrate this point.
I can play notes all over the place, but unless there is something for you to recognize or appreciate, it will not mean anything to you (like my favorite oxymoron: rap music).
And…if the trumpeter does not utter clear notes in battle, the soldiers will not know what to do.
So it is with tongues.
If the gift of tongues is exercised during worship, and no one understands it, it is like speaking to the air.
There is no meaning.
And it is meaning that makes language language.
Tongues alone has no profit for the gathering.
Language is intended to break down barriers, not build them.
But for certain ones in Corinth, they were only interested in impressing, not communicating.
ILL Translation: confusion?!
In the ascertainment of an excogitation of linguistic proclivity, one might ascribe to the mentation that a phratry exists in which some encyclopedists designedly cultivate a nonplussed ambience hypothecated to befuddle the vox populi.
Confused??? Here is the translation…
Judging from the words some people use, you’d think they purposely write to confuse the average person.
Notice how easy it is to understand when we are speaking the same language.
You see…
2. When language is understood, it benefits the church.
This is where we must put our effort.
We are to seek to abound in growing and building the church.
What we are to keep our focus on, is not our individual experiences, but the unity of the body.
That is a statement, by the way, that has a much wider application than just tongues.
Now we come to the…
II. The second concept is THINKING (13-19).
(13) Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret. (14) For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. (15) 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. (16) Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say "Amen" to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? (17) For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. (18) I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. (19) Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
As a rule, we should be careful to not let our feelings get in the way of our thought processes.
ILL Emotion: Deliveries in the back
One dad was excited and nervous about the birth of his first child. When the anticipated day arrived, the father-to-be drove his wife quickly to the hospital, speeding past the admitting entrance.
“Bill, that’s where we supposed to go.”
“No, Honey,” Bill said. “I saw a sign that said DELIVERIES IN THE REAR.”
1. We are not to be controlled by our emotions.
We can be reasonably confident that many of the Corinthians, who were exercising tongues, if not most of them, were letting go of rational thought, and letting their emotions be in control.
They were following the practice of the Greco-Roman religions.
Such devotees would drink and dance themselves into a frenzy with ecstatic utterances, which was considered the highest form of communion with the gods.
For Paul, what is said must be known.
And it is here, I believe, that Paul turns to sarcasm to make his point.
I know that not all agree with me on this point, but I do ask that you give it consideration.
For are tongues an expression of prayer and praise?
Or are they a word from God that is to be proclaimed and understood?
I believe that Paul’s point through here is that the Corinthians were living in contradiction.
The Holy Spirit does not pray through a person and bypass his mind.
Paul would later write to the Romans (12:2):
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.
And again in his next letter to the Corinthians (10:5):
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
D. A. Carson has written:
“Our God is a thinking, speaking God; and if we will know him, we must learn to think his thoughts after him.”
When we gather…
2. We are to come to an agreement.
What we must remember through our study here, is that the real issue is not tongues.
The issue is clarity in communication.
We need to be able to say, “Amen” to what is being said.
When we do that, using the minds God has given us, we agree on what is true and holy.
Now we come to…
III. The third concept is BLESSING (20-25).
(20) Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. (21) In the Law it is written, "By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord." (22) Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. (23) 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? (24) But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, (25) 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.
Paul wants us to cease being like children in our thinking.
But at the same time, we are to be as innocent as babies in behavior.
This preoccupation with tongues with no concern for others is childish.
It is childish when experience is favored over truth.
It is childish when emotion is favored over reason.
It is childish when we choose our own will over God’s.
Paul quotes Isaiah here to prove that…
1. God was bringing blessing by including all nations.
The advent of tongues was a sign that God was no longer working with one nation.
The new covenant was made and Jesus was for all peoples.
His body, the Church has many languages, but no barriers.
It is here that Paul makes it clear…
2. The function of tongues is to bless the unbeliever.
Tongues is a demonstration that God cares and God loves the unbeliever.
Its purpose is to communicate truth to him/her.
But when it was used in a worship gathering, it is ineffective if it has no one to reach and if there is no interpretation.
So if an unbeliever hears it, it is ineffective if they don’t know the language.
As a result they will reject the gospel as the product of insane babblers.
You see, the church’s most powerful testimony is not its ecstasies.
It is the proclamation of God’s truth.
For…
3. The purpose of worship is to come to the conclusion that God is present.
APPLICATION:
Someone commented to me last week that perhaps my message was based on personal experience.
And in a way, this is true.
It is very difficult for any of us to be truly objective.
I have to admit that my experiences through the years have been varied and confusing.
This is why about 15 years ago, I made a concerted effort to figure some of this out.
And here was my method…
For what is vitally important for all of us to remember is that we must not read our experiences as a way to interpret the Bible.
It is, rather, that God’s Word is to interpret our experiences.
It is our rule of faith.
So, let me share concerns about certain conclusions that have been made about tongues.
First…
1. CONCERN: Some understand tongues as a requirement for either salvation or the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
This has been the understanding by some of the Pentecostal and charismatic persuasion.
They believe that tongues is the unique and decisive evidence that a person has been filled with the Spirit and the “second blessing” has occurred.
But the problem is that this understanding is prone to artificial manipulation and imitation.
Tongues is urged to the point that one performs and is accepted, or does not perform, and is not.
It also takes the biblical texts, specifically in Acts, where they were not intended to go.
From our study of I Corinthians 12, we know that the gift of tongues is not for everybody.
It is not a normative experience.
Second…
2. CONCERN: Some understand that tongues has stopped altogether.
This has been the understanding by some of our theological background.
It is a typical baptistic, dispensational conclusion that tongues passed with the apostolic age.
It is their conclusion that tongues was no longer needed once the Church was established.
This is a conclusion that I held for many years, but decided to change, because the Scriptural evidence didn’t hold up.
You see…
The problem is that this understanding comes from one verse in I Corinthians 13, and it is a very dangerous thing to base one’s theology on one verse alone.
Third…
3. CONCERN: Tongues as a prayer language is suspect.
While a first reading of our text today might direct one to conclude that there is a prayer language, I have come to the conclusion that Paul was doing just the opposite.
I do not believe that God gives two kinds of tongues – one that is intelligible, and one that is not.
You may not agree with me on this, but I believe the bigger picture of the study of tongues points away from the interpretation that it can be a prayer language.
But…
4. Whatever position one takes, the root meaning of tongue as language must guide the study.
We cannot let our experience guide the way in understanding tongues.
Again, Scripture is to guide and direct our experience.
Through it all, Paul’s point remains intact.
5. We are responsible to communicate clearly.
If we do not do so, unbelievers do not hear the good news, and believers are not built.
Let us be careful communicators!
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Communicate clearly…for words are to mean things; so they should be spoken clearly and with forethought, for the glory of God.
Communicate clearly…for words can be used to bless the hearers by showing the true way of life, for the glory of God.
Now may your love abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best; and may you be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Amen.
RESOURCES:
Blomberg, Craig, The NIV Application Commentary
Fee, Gordon, The New International Commentary on the New Testament
MacArthur, John, I Corinthians
Stanley N. Gundry, “Facing the Issues of Tongues,” Moody Monthly, October 1973, pp. 38-39, 96-101.
Gerald E. McGraw, “Tongues: True of False,” The Alliance Witness, May 22, 1974, pp. 8-10.
SermonCentral:
In Search of the Spirit, Joel Pankow
I Recognize That, Chris Talton (part 1 & 2)
Signs of the Times, Christ Talton
