The Building Plan, The Tools, Part 3

Review

The Tools

From I Corinthians 12-13

Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, Faith, Gifts of Healing, Effecting of Miracles, Prophecy, Distinguishing of Spirits, Various Kinds of Tongues, Interpretation of Tongues, Apostles, Prophets, Teaching, Helps, Administration, Tongues of Men and Angels, Know all Mysteries, Giving All My Possessions to Feed the Poor, Martyrdom

From Romans, Ephesians, and I Peter

service (deacon), exhortation, giving/sharing (benevolence), leadership (ruling), mercy, Evangelist, hospitality, stewardship

Love The Most Important Thing

The more excellent way (12:31b)

The greatest of the great (13:13)

Worthy of pursuit (14:1)

Pursue Love (vs. 1)

To follow or press hard after.

To pursue with earnestness and diligence in order to obtain.

Matthew 22:36–39 NASB95

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

John 13:34 NASB95

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

Ephesians 4:32–5:2 NASB95

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Romans 12:9 (NASB95)

Let love be without hypocrisy...

Why the emphasis on love? They kept pushing and using their gifts for selfish and immoral reasons.

True use of spiritual gifts should result in spiritual fruit.

And the first aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is love.

Yet, Desire Earnestly Spiritual Gifts (vs 1)

To be zealous for.

Seek to discover what your spiritual gift is.

There are spiritual gift tests. Some better than others.

I’m not 100% convinced that a test can definitively tell you what your spiritual gift is.

Also, no test is perfect, so the best a test can do is point you in the right direction.

That being said, C. Peter Wagner’s spiritual gifts test is a good one.

Otherwise, you just have to try different ministries and do different things to see if any of those gifts manifest themselves.

Ask others what they think your spiritual gift is and then start to use it.

Ultimately, pray and ask God to reveal to you what it is.

But Especially That You May Prophesy

Even after Paul says that not everyone has the same gift and there is no gift that is given to everyone, he says to desire that you have the gift of prophecy.

One might take from this verse that if you earnestly desire the gift of prophecy, God will give it to you, but that’s not exactly what it is saying.

It’s more along the lines of: Seek to discover your spiritual gift and pray that it might be the gift of prophecy.

He does generalize his comment a little bit more in vs.12

1 Corinthians 14:12 NASB95

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

Be zealous for the gifts that edify the church body.

Which is his greater point in this chapter, that ultimately the purpose of all of these supernatural giftings given to us is so that we can edify and build each other up in the body.

Ephesians 4:16 NASB95

from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

A Tongue vs. Prophecy

Now Paul attacks one of the bigger issues the church in Corinth was having head on. He’s already mentioned tongues several times already, but now is zeroing in on a tongue as well as true prophecy.

The tongue he focuses on here is the ecstatic speaking in an unknown language.

The problem is spiritual pride over having the gift of speaking in tongues and looking down on those who did not possess this gift.

It’s why He has made the points he made regarding spiritual gifts, especially in his ranking tongues as the next to last gift and now here elevating and saying that in reality prophecy is the greatest of the spiritual gifts.

Here’s why it became a problem and was misunderstood.

Paganism was still being practiced in the Church.

Paganism here is defined as they way they worshipped before coming to the One True God, through Jesus Christ.

Essentially the polytheistic worship of the Greek Pantheon.

Eloquence was greatly admired in the first century.

And specifically, oracles.

Oracles were divine communication delivered in response to a petitioners request.

They were also the seat the prophecy itself.

Oracles were a branch of divination.

Oracular shrines were numerous in antiquity, and at each the god was consulted by a fixed means of divination.

The method could be simple, such as the casting of lots or the rustling of tree leaves, or more sophisticated, taking the form of a direct inquiry of an inspired person who then gave the answer orally.

One means of divination was consultation with the dead.

One of the most common methods was incubation, in which the inquirer slept in a holy precinct and received an answer in a dream.

The Greeks elevated this form of communication with the spirit world and one of the most well known and sought after oracles was the Oracles at Delphi.

Pythia was the priestess at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.

It was believed that she delivered prophecies from the Greek god Apollo.

The Pythia and her consultants first bathed in the Castalian spring; afterward, the Pythia drank from the sacred spring Cassotis and then entered the temple.

There she apparently descended into a basement cell, mounted a sacred tripod, and chewed leaves of the laurel, Apollo’s sacred tree.

The Pythia often went into an ecstatic state and would channel Apollo.

Some have claimed that her altered condition was the result of gases—such as ethylene and methane—that were emitted from geologic fault lines underneath the temple.

Whatever the cause, the Pythia would speak, intelligibly, but sometimes ecstatically.

Her words, however, were not directly recorded by the inquirer; instead, they were interpreted and written down by the priests in what was often highly ambiguous verse.

Even though the last prophecy was reportedly delivered in 393 BC, we see the influence of the “spirit of pythia” continuing.

Acts 16:16 NASB95

It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling.

python - pythia

And so here, Paul says it’s time to tackle this issue head on.

1 Corinthians 12:1–2 NASB95

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led.

There’s been much confusion and misuse of the true gifts of speaking in a tongue and prophecy.

Let’s set the record straight by God’s standard.

The Purpose of Speaking in A Tongue (vs. 2-19)

Paul does not say to NOT speak in a tongue.

So he accepts it as a real supernatural act of the Holy Spirit.

But he defines its purpose and use.

vs 2 - You are speaking to God and not to men.

You are speaking mysteries in your spirit.

vs. 4, 17 - It is for the edification or building up of oneself.

vs. 5, 13 - Speaking in tongues can bring edification to the church if someone interprets. Paul leaves room here for the person speaking to interpret.

vs. 13 - this is where Paul introduces what we now call the prayer language of a tongue.

vs. 14 - I myself do not even understand it.

vs. 13 - I can pray for its interpretation.

vs. 15 - Now he introduces the ability to sing in the spirit as well as praying in the spirit.

vs. 16 - Even though Paul condones the practice, he says, it is of no profit unless there is an interpretation so that others without the gift can say, “Amen!” at your giving of thanks.

vs. 18-19 - Paul concludes with the fact that he speaks in tongues more than all of them, BUT, IN THE CHURCH, would rather speak 5 words with his mind that are intelligible than 10,000 words in a tongue.

The Gift of Prophecy (vs. 1)

To declare truths through the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit.

To tell forth (proclaim) the counsel or will of God with clearness, energy, and authority.

The revealing of divine purposes and doctrines which before were untaught.

Extemporaneous and spontaneous application of the message of Scripture to the life of the church or individual.

It could be a sudden insight that comes to an individual about a passage of Scripture, a topic under discussion, or a particular situation.

vs. 24 - The secrets of the heart are laid bare to the point of conviction and a response of, “God is surely in this place,” and falls down in worship.

NT prophecy not being considered “infallible” is clear from Paul’s instructions that other leaders of the church were to listen and “weigh carefully what [was] said,” perhaps to verify that the message spoken was indeed consistent with apostolic teaching (v. 29).

Paul hints at the process as well in I Thessalonians.

1 Thessalonians 5:19–22 NASB95

Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.

The Purpose of The Gift of Prophecy (14:3)

Edification - oikodome -

the act of building up to the benefit of others. A way of building up Christian character.

Exhortation - paraklesis -

encouragement for the purpose of strengthening and establishing a believer in the faith. A speaking of moral precepts and warnings.

Consolation - paramuthia -

comfort - it expresses a greater degree if tenderness. to be a soothing influence. A strengthening of one’s fortitude.

The Tool Box of a “p”rophet (14:3-6)

Revelation of Mysteries (vs 2, 6)

musterion - a spiritual truth couched under an external representation and concealed or hidden and in need of some kind of explanation

apokalupsis - to reveal - an uncovering or unveiling, to fathom and unfold the deep things of God.

Word of knowledge

wisdom

Prophecy

Teaching

That being said, you can have the gift of prophecy and not be a prophet.

Concluding Comments (vs 39-40)

vs. 39 - repeats one more time - Desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.

speaking in tongues has its place

praying or singing in a tongue has its place

but…focus on prophecy, it has greater value for the edification of the congregation.

And final reminder...

vs. 40 - everything must be done properly and in order.

essentially, everyone should not be speaking at the same time. Whether a tongue, a teaching, a revelation, or whatever, it should be done one at a time and no more than 3 people total.

Application

Just like any other spiritual gift, I do not believe the gift of speaking in a prayer language is something everyone gets.

So, if you have it, be thankful you do.

If you don’t, don’t sweat it, because Paul’s point is, church, stop elevating the tongue speaking to a position that it is not intended to be.

The spiritual gift of way more consequence is prophecy.

Let all things be done in love for the purpose of the edification of the body and not for self-glorification.

Closing Song: Gratitude