Church Behavior - 2

1 Cor 14:13-18

 

 

 

With the rise of the Pentecostal churches, more and more is being said about speaking in tongues.  I have 2 very good friends who are Pentecostal preachers and from time to time we talk about speaking in tongues and what it means.  It’s interesting to see their view on tongues compared to the way I grew up and was taught about tongues.

 

Does speaking in tongues make you saved like many churches teach?  Is speaking in tongues the greatest of spiritual gifts like many people believe?  These are some of the questions that come up when talking about this subject and we’ll attempt to answer some of those questions today as we gain a better understanding of speaking in tongues and worship from what Paul has to say to the Corinthians.

 

PRAYER

 

I.       What Is Speaking In Tongues

A.   The most common interpretation of tongues is an unknown “heavenly” tongue that connects people with God.

1.                 This started as early as the end of the 2nd century when a priest claimed he and his followers were given special language abilities to commune with God.

2.                 We had a great resurgence of this thought in the 1700’s when groups listening to restoration speakers would begin shaking and “speaking in tongues” while listening to the preachers.

3.                 Warren Wiersbe says this was a response of the body being allowed to participate in a worship experience.

a)                For so long the common people could only be spectators in worship.

b)                The reformation and more so the restoration called for congregation as a whole to participate in worship and the spontaneous shaking and tongues was a release of a pent up passion to express themselves.

c)                 Even today, people look to something that allows them to express themselves if they have been part of a dry lifeless style of worship or no worship experience at all.

4.                 In many Pentecostal circles, tongues is a sign of salvation.

5.                 They believe this expression is a sign that God has truly changed the hearts of the person involved.

6.                 The biggest problem with this belief is that it isn’t limited to Christianity.  Almost every religion has some who go into tongue speaking or shaking, so how can it be only from the Holy Spirit?

B.   The other interpretation is that tongues are not unknown or heavenly words but simply other languages.

1.                 As you read scripture, I believe it is pretty evident that is what intended by the writers who spoke of speaking in tongues.

2.                 Acts 2 says each person heard in their own language.

3.                 In our own text, vs 10 and 21 are plainly showing that Paul was talking about human tongues not some heavenly language.

4.                 It wouldn’t do any good for me to speak to you in Welsh.  A language I used to be somewhat fluent in if no one here understands Welsh.

5.                 I could preach the greatest sermon ever, but if it is in a language that you don’t understand, it’s a wasted sermon.

6.                 The original language can help clear up much of the misunderstanding of this chapter.

a)                In vs 16 the NIV talks about those who don’t understand.

b)                They take the Greek word “idiotos” and say it means one who doesn’t understand.  A more proper rendering of that word is comparing one who has not been educated to one who has. 

c)                 It wasn’t they couldn’t understand, it was they hadn’t been trained to understand. 

d)                They didn’t know the foreign language.

II.    Is Speaking In Tongues The Greatest of Gifts?

A.   Corinth though so

1.                 In Chapter 12 Paul talks about the various spiritual gifts that were in the Corinthian church.

2.                 These gifts were given so the gospel could be taught and people could learn God’s will in an accelerated manner.

3.                 Whether the tongues were a spiritual language or a foreign language the problem in Corinth was still the same.

4.                 As you read Paul’s words in Chapter 14, it’s very clear that the Corinthians thought they were “all that” because they could speak in tongues.

5.                 Somewhere the concept of being able to speak in tongues made that person better than the rest in the Corinthian mind.

6.                 When they worshipped, you had some speaking in one language, some speaking in another and others speaking in still another language all at the same time.

7.                 It was absolute chaos in the worship service!

B.   Paul sets them straight

1.                 He says in the first 5 verses, “Hey, it would be nice if everyone spoke in tongues, but it’s a whole lot better if everyone could tell everyone about Christ.”

2.                 The word prophecy is the same word we use for preach.

3.                 speaking in tongues only helped that person or the few who understood his language.

4.                 prophesying edified or built up the whole church

5.                 That was what was most important in worship; that everyone be edified.

6.                 1 Corinthians 14:18-19 (NLT) I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 But in a church meeting I would much rather speak five understandable words that will help others than ten thousand words in an unknown language.

C.   How can speaking in tongues be wrong?

1.                 One of the first things that struck me was, if tongues are from the Holy Spirit, how can it be wrong to speak in tongues during worship?

2.                 I feel that is a very fair question to consider.

3.                 Can God give us a gift and yet say don’t use it?

D.   Paul’s Answer

1.                 READ vs 26-33

2.                 But Paul didn’t stop there.  READ vs 39-40

3.                 He wasn’t saying that speaking in tongues and prophesying were wrong, but when doing them becomes chaotic, nothing is gained and outsiders would only see confusion and disorder.

4.                 A few years back, my family and I had the opportunity to visit Washington D.C.  In the Mall, we passed thousands of people from so many different countries, that you couldn’t hardly take in all the languages that were being spoken all around you.  That’s okay if you are just overhearing conversations walking down a crowded street, but what if an unbeliever came into worship with so many things all going on at once that they had no idea what was happening?

5.                 How has God be glorified or that unbeliever taught?

6.                 My college president’s favorite verse at chapel was vs 40.  He could misuse that scripture with the best of them.

7.                 Paul wasn’t demanding regimentation, he was saying to keep worship in such a way that people are edified, not confused.

III.  Conclusion

A.   I believe that tongues has always meant human language

B.   But whether only human language or a heavenly language, anytime the gift of tongues is misused or people think themselves so much better than anyone else not gifted as they, they sin.

C.   God wants the worship to edify not confuse.

D.   He wants the opportunities we have on Sunday to be relevant and meaningful to unbelievers, not just an insiders special club with their secret handshake mentality.