The Edification of the Church

Last week we started a journey looking at spiritual gifts in the church. We specified those spiritual gifts centering on the miraculous spiritual gifts or sign gifts that Paul deals with in the church in Corinth. Last week I made the case for the belief system called cessation ism, which holds to the idea that the miraculous gifts, prophecy, tongues, healing, miracles, had a purpose during the foundational years of the church at its inception. This is often called the apostolic age.

Also tried to point us to the full scope of scripture so that we might see how the sign gifts like miracles being performed were a testimony and authentication of the message of God that was coming forth from the mouth of profits, and eventually apostles. Because God has delivered a completed revelation of himself through these prophets and apostles, we can see how the miraculous spiritual gifts no longer need to be used since God has given us his final word in the Scriptures. As the title of my sermon last week asked, “are miraculous gifts for today” my answer to that question would be no.

Review

Now, as I have stated, previously, Paul was writing to the Corinthians about particular matters in their church that needed his biblical direction. When we look back to chapter 6 of first Corinthians, we are reminded about Paul’s discussion of Christian liberty. in the Corinthian context, the Corinthians were being inconsiderate and unloving toward the weaker brother. They would attend, social gatherings at pagan Temple, unaware how those weaker brothers and sisters in Christ might view such a gathering and be tempted there, correct these unloving, church members, and brings to their attention, the danger of abusing their Christian liberty.

Now, in our contemporary context, we cannot relate specifically to Christian liberty in relationship to social gatherings at pagan temples. Most of us would not have that penciled in our calendar on a monthly basis to attend such a gathering and abuse our Christian liberty, and that way. But there are principles in that passage that still applied to the church today, even though the context may be different.

I say all this, because I believe the same type of application can be made for chapters 12 through 14. In my view, even though the miraculous gifts in the church have ceased that does not negate the application of these verses in the life of the church today. As a matter-of-fact, the overarching theme of chapter 14 is that nothing should stay in the way of the church being edified and built up. The edification in building up of one another in Christ is our goal until Christ returns.

For the Corinthians, there were some in the church who were practicing speaking in tongues. They were given this gift that I will explain today, and they were emphasizing this gift in an elitist way which causes division and disunity in the body. Paul will make his case in chapter 14 that edification is the goal of the church community, and in his view prophecy has a greater capacity for edification over tongue – speaking if no interpretation of tongue exists.

We looked last week at the definition of prophecy from well-known pastor and professor Tom Schreiner. He states that prophecy is the “reception of spontaneous revelations from God that instruct encourage and warn the people of God.” It is hard for us to imagine what this might have looked like in the early church setting, nonetheless, it is clear that prophecy was practiced, whereby those with the gift of prophecy would give spontaneous revelations from God for the edification of the body. This differs from the practice today in some charismatic circles where prophecy is viewed more as impressions from the Lord, about the personal lives of individuals.

An example that I might give early on my ministry as a youth worker. The church youth group where I served was coming home from a youth event and they stopped at a gas station. As the bus driver got gas and the students filed back into the bus from getting snacks, a random woman walked onto the bus, looked at the leadership and told that she had a message from the Lord. She was driving down the road, and she said the Lord gave her this word to give to someone on our bus. The leadership gave her permission to speak, and she began to plead with the students to turn from being false converts and turn to Christ. She said something to the degree of “one of you on here is pretending to be a Christian and you need to confess your sins and truly put your faith in Christ.” When she finished her plea, a young girl in the back, raised her hand, and said that this woman was referring to her.

Now at the time I was amazed by the story but now, as I have studied and grown in my faith in Christ, I am more skeptical. I’m not skeptical, because this random woman was faithful to speak the truth of the gospel to a unknown group of strangers. That takes courage! I think it’s just as likely that this woman could have been previously a false convert, and upon seeing a church bus, wanted to warn students on the bus so that they would not end up as she was. For the gospel could have been the motivating factor in her actions, and not an impromptu message from the Lord as she explained it.

Now I know that I sound like a Debbie downer, or a spirit quencher when it comes to the work of the Holy Spirit. But we must have our Christian faith and practice informed by the word of God instead of experiences. If we allow the description of experiences by other people to be the foundation of our belief system in the work of the Holy Spirit, then we will fall greatly into heresy and evil.

Can the Holy Spirit lead us to impromptu convictions, based based upon the word of God, whereby we spontaneously act in faithfulness? Yes! Should this be considered prophecy? No!

It is not prophecy because it is not revelation from God as some of the proponents of continuationism call it. It could be a work of the spirit to recall biblical truth, which brings about conviction which brings about action. This does not have to be promoted as direct revelation from the Lord, especially revelation that can be fallible in its delivery.

So, as we look at chapter 14, we are looking at a practice in the church of prophecy and speaking in tongues that has ceased. Since we have looked in detail about prophecy, let’s now look at a survey of tongues in the church.

1. The Use of Tongues in Acts

As we see, in versus one through three at first Corinthians, Paul will compare, prophecy and speaking in tongues. Therefore, it is helpful to define speaking in tongues, and to do so based upon what scripture reveals to us. To start, we will look at the first known case of speaking in tongues in the New Testament. To do so we will look at the book of acts, and we will see that from the perspective of Pentecost.

Tongues in Acts

To understand the gift of tongues, we need to see the introduction of tongues from a redemptive historical approach. What that means is that to understand tongues in connection to prophecy and the gifts of the spirit, we need to go back to the reason that tongues occurred on the day of Pentecost, in act, chapter 2.

Therefore, look back with me to Luke 3:16-17

Luke 3:16–17 NASB95

16 John answered and said to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 “His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Here John the Baptist is speaking about the coming Messiah, and how that Messiah would be greater than John and his ministry of baptism. John was baptizing with water signifying, a cleansing of sin represented in their repentance of those who came seeking the baptism. John reveals that Jesus the Messiah would come, and he would bring about a baptism of the Holy Spirit and a fire. We understand that baptism of the spirit represents the gathering of the church at Pentecost, while the baptism of fire represents the judgment on unbelievers when Jesus returns this is signified in the following verses represented by the wheat that is gathered and the chaff that is burned.

So then, when we get to act chapter 2, we see the giving of the Holy Spirit to believers in an initial act of the inception of the church. One sign that was given to authenticate the giving of the Holy Spirit was the gift of tongues to the apostles. Just as promised, this baptism Of the spirit was the gathering of the wheat, the church, and its initial form. When the promise of the Holy Spirit came upon these apostles, they were able to speak an unknown dialect to them. These unknown dialect were earthly languages that the apostles had never learned, and yet the audience in the crowd who had traveled great distances, could understand their own cultural languages, and were thus amazed. The purpose of the gift of tongues in Acts 2 is threefold:

the proclamation of the revelation of God, known as prophecy that revelation spoken in an unknown language to the speaker, but interpreted by the hearer The sign of tongues represented the giving of the Holy Spirit to believers in Christ, signifying their inclusion in the church.

Acts 2:6–11 NASB95

6 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 “And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? 9 “Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.”

While this gift of tongues was amazing and acts to, it was slightly different than this tongue, speaking elsewhere, because the interpretation of the tongues was provided by those who knew those languages already. Not verse 11 which states “we hear them in our own tongues, speaking of the mighty deeds of God“

Therefore an act chapter 2, we see that the tongues at Pentecost were not un intelligible, ecstatic gibberish, as we might see in charismatic churches today. Instead, it was a way for God to reveal truth in a miraculous and astonishing way so that people might glory in God and his word.

In the book of Acts, we continue to see the giving of the Holy Spirit, two different groups of believers who also would be included in the church. In act, chapter 8, the spirit of God was given to believers in Samaria, thus representing Samaritans being included in the diverse body of Christ. in chapter 10 when Peter visited the household of Cornelius, who is a gentile, he and his family also believed in Christ, received the Holy Spirit and begins speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues was a sign of the Holy Spirit that had come upon them, and their inclusion in the church. Finally an acts, chapter 19, in the city of Ephesus, the apostle Paul encounters disciples of John the Baptist, who have yet to understand the full meaning of the gospel and salvation in Jesus Christ. When they come to this understanding and put their faith in Christ, they to receive the Holy Spirit and begin “speaking with tongues and prophesying.”

We understand these circumstances of speaking in tongues, not as unintelligible gibberish, but as a supernatural gift for these new believers to speak a language that was unknown to them which was revelation from God. We understand that this was revelation like prophecy because of Acts 2 with those in attendance hearing truth and praise of God in their own dialect. Also in Acts 10:46 there must have been interpretation because it states,

Acts 10:46 NASB95

46 For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered,

If there was no interpretation, then there could not be a connection of exalting God with tongues among the Gentiles. Instead, there would have been confusion as to what was being said.

Before we leave Acts, I stated earlier that we must see the Pentecost event and the other events where tongues were given as a sign of the Holy Spirit. These events in a redemptive historical viewpoint, were the work of God to undo what was corrupted by sin in the fall. You could see how Adam and Eve being dispersed from God’s presence in Gen 3 which led to humanity’s growth and complete dispersion in Gen 11 at the tower of Babel. There God brought judgment upon mankind and caused humanity to divide into groups of different languages.

But at Pentecost and throughout , you see the redemption of that Babel dispersion as those from different nations come to faith in Christ and with unknown languages, hear the revelation of God spoken so that many nations and cultures are brought back into one kingdom under God. Tongues plays a part in this because as tongues end with Christ’s return, we know that at his return all differing cultures in the church, will all speak one language again in eternity.

Revelation 7:9–10 NASB95

9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

Tongues in Corinth

Now Paul is making the comparison in chapter 14 between tongues and prophecy because the Corinthians were mesmerized by the use of tongues in their context. The problem was that word got back to Paul that tongues were a distraction in the body. Tongues were being spoken but no one was interpreting. As I made the case in Acts that tongues were the gift of the Holy Spirit that enabled persons to speak an unknown language as a way of revelation from God. This was a sign of God’s power and it authenticated the reveled message from the Lord when it was used. But in the church setting, if someone began speaking an unknown language without interpretation, it did not build up the church, it just brought confusion.

There is no evidence that tongue speaking is different in Corinth than it was in Acts. Some try and argue that tongue speaking is a heavenly language, unknown to any man, outside of the interpreter, who is also gifted in understanding and communicating the meaning. But Paul seems to indicate that tongues is in fact, intelligible earthly words, not random sounds and grunts.

1 Corinthians 14:2–4 NASB95

2 For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. 3 But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. 4 One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church.

The argument goes that when tongues is used, the person is speaking only to God, therefore the language is one of heaven not earth. But actually, tongues can only be UNDERSTOOD by God in the presence of those who do not speak that earthly language being spoken. When I go to India and begin teaching in Tamil to a full room of Tamil speakers who know zero English, then I am only speaking in a way that myself and God can understand.

Instead, we read that tongues speaking involves “Mysteries” spoken by the Spirit. Now if you do a word study of Paul’s use of MUSTERION which is translated mysteries, it refers revealed truth from God to His people.

1 Corinthians 2:7 NASB95

7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory;

1 Corinthians 4:1 NASB95

1 Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

Both these examples in his letter to Corinth, Paul refers to mysteries as wisdom from God, not just some unexplained phenomenon. But Paul’s point is that there is still confusion and there is a lack of edification in the body when tongues are spoken if there is no interpretation of that message from the Lord.

1 Corinthians 14:5 NASB95

5 Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying.

Paul elevates prophecy over uninterpreted tongues because it does not enrich the hearer to listen to some foreign language spoken that is not understood. But when interpretation of the tongue happens, Paul is telling us that is on an equal plane with prophecy because the hearer understands the revelation from God and it strengthened in their walk with Christ.

In verses 7-11, Paul uses a few illustrations to make his point that tongues without interpretation only led to confusion in the church.

He uses music as an example on a flute or harp: without distinct notes, how can one understand the music

A trumpet used to call an army to battle: without a meaning behind the blowing of the trumpet, how can the army be prepared

A confused uncivilized people: without speaking the language, the emmissary to an uncivilized people not speaking their language could be in grave danger

Paul’s point for the entire chapter is summarized in v 12,

1 Corinthians 14:12 NASB95

12 So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church.

Here is Paul’s subtle correction for the Corinthian church,

“Since you are so passionate for the spiritual gifts”

This should be our first point of application from this chapter since in my view tongues is no longer a necessary gift in the church today.

DO NOT LET OUR ZEALOUSNESS FOR AMAZEMENT AND ENTERTAINMENT OVERRIDE THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH.

The purpose of the gathering of the church is for God to be glorified and the body to grow in their faith in Christ. But as humans, we can be all to captivated by the sparkling and shining components of today’s entertainment and it can override the proclamation of God’s word, the building up of the believer and the glorifying of Christ. Tongues captivated the Corinthians like the Holy Spirit power captivate Simon Magnus. He lost sight of what the Holy Spirit was for and he wanted it for personal gain. He was captivated by it!

As you can see in our gathering, we want to present quality that honors Christ, not necessarily what appeals to an entertainment-driven world. This building limits us to have smoke machines, large mounted LED screens, dimmable lights, etc. But if we had that option, we would decline but we want you to captivated by God’s revealed word to you, not your surroundings. Stained glass is beautiful artwork in a church building, but in the end, they are just colorful windows.

“Seek to abound for the edification of the Church”

Let us continue to long for the hearty components of what truly edifies the church- spiritual enrichment centered on Christ and his word. We need intimate fellowship as a body that grows, weeps and rejoices in the unity we have in Christ. We need a focus on the mission of the cross so that lost souls can be rescued from the domain of darkness and given new life by the light of men, Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the focus of proper edification in the body that Corinth needed and what Redemption Church needs for today!

Paul states to abound in edification. This means that what we understand as those components of the church that lead to our proper edification, let us seek these things in such a way not just of fullness, but excessively to the point of overflowing. Its the thanksgiving plate you fix where the food is practically falling off the sides. Do not be satisfied with the bare minimum in Bible study, preaching, fellowship, worship, mission, prayer. Abound in these things as God’s people to an overflowing level for the sake of the body of Christ in its growth and for the Glory of God.