Epiphany - 6 - Celebrating Order Together

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 14:1-12,39-40

1 Corinthians 14:1–12 NIV

1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. 4 Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified. 6 Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction? 7 Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the pipe or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes? 8 Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle? 9 So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. 10 Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. 11 If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker is a foreigner to me. 12 So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.

1 Corinthians 14:39–40 NIV

39 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 40 But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.

2/9/2025

Order of Service:

Announcements

Opening Worship

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

Kid’s Time

Mission Moment

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Closing Song

Benediction

Special Notes:

Week 2: Mission Moment

IOP - 60 Bibles for orphans

Opening Prayer:

Heavenly Father, as we gather today, we pray that our words and actions will be guided by your wisdom. Let everything be done decently and in order, for the building up of the body of Christ. May our communication be clear, our hearts be united, and our focus be on edifying one another with love and understanding. We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.

Celebrating Order Together

Serendipity

Serendipity is a word that means: The occurrence and development of events by chance that happen in a happy and beneficial way.

My first real encounter with this word was in a study Bible. Back in my early days as a new believer, I encountered a Serendipity Study Bible. It was a Bible and a curriculum, all in one book, for small groups or Sunday school classes. They have republished these Bibles over the years, and I know they go back at least as far as the 80s. The selling point of this Bible is that it contains studies for just about anyone in any situation. There were studies for men, women, seniors, youth… They had studies on marriage or singleness, grief, suffering, and many other topics. I think the intention behind it was to create a resource that would allow anyone to lead a Bible study with any group of people without any special training or additional resources. They wanted to make the one book people might need if they were stranded on an island and could only have one book. That’s an honorable mission.

The downside is the same whenever we try to create something that will work for everybody. One-size-fits-all generally doesn’t exactly fit anyone. It’s like serving chicken noodle soup in a way that everyone can eat: taking out the noodles for those who can’t do carbs, removing the meat for the vegetarians out there, cutting out the salt for the low-sodium people, and pretty much leaving you with warm water. Some books, ministries, and Christian groups focus on feeding their sheep the bare minimum and feeding them warm water. Every once in a while, their people will find a small piece of celery or sliver of carrot, and they will call it serendipity: a happy accident that left them feeling blessed.

Other groups take a similar approach of throwing something in for everybody, but who do it with less care. To them, it doesn’t matter if you have allergies or dietary concerns; they have leftovers in the fridge that need to be used, And it’s all going into the pot. They make their chicken noodle soup with pepperonis and cheese, served with a side of cinnamon-flavored garlic bread with grape frosting. They might even put out peanut butter sandwiches for those afraid they might be allergic to something else served. They wouldn’t call that one-size-fits-all. They would call that something for everyone, even if it’s mixed in with something else. The serendipity in that meal might be the peanut butter sandwiches, so long as you weren’t allergic to peanuts.

Genesis chapter 1 tells us that God created everything with a particular order and purpose. The next chapter explains that we were created to help maintain and cultivate that order and purpose. Our bodies, hearts, minds, and souls desire order and yearn to grow according to a particular purpose. We only recognize sin and rebellion in us because we are aware of God’s order all around us. We would never feel guilty if we truly believed we were free to do whatever we wanted.

In our passage today, Paul explains to the Christians in Corinth that when we gather together to worship and serve God, the growth that comes from us should not be serendipity or a happy accident. It should be expected and according to God’s plan that we follow together because Our worship and work together serve a purpose beyond ourselves.

Marketplace

The idea of discipleship was not something the Corinthians were used to. To them, life was a buffet. To them, heaven was a shopping mall. Everything is for everybody all the time. Come and get what you need. We have someone who will sell it to you. It doesn’t matter who you are because I won’t remember your name anyway. I just want to see you smile. That’s the win we’re going for. Come back next week and smile for us again. It’ll be a different show, even better than the one today. I don’t know how they felt about Sunday mornings, but they would’ve loved Saturday Night Live.

And it was more than just entertainment. Many of them wanted to learn serious things as well. They were close enough to Athens, one of the great intellectual capitals of the ancient world, that they wanted to outsmart them from time to time. They were close enough to the Spartans that they may have wanted to be able to compete physically and athletically with them. They probably had all of those desires. What they were able to be, though, was a marketplace for everything and everybody. So they would teach, preach, play, and pray like salesmen and saleswomen. Billboards were not enough. They wanted people inside and outside Their services, dressed up and dancing and twirling those signs around, telling everyone in the world what a great deal they could get on salvation today.

Well, that’s an over-exaggeration of who they were. But those are the cultural values that they had. Even before Paul wrote about this, Jesus was already at work on these people’s minds and hearts, holding back some of their pride in their competitive nature. But that is closer to how the pagans worshipped in town. And that may be what some of their people expected from them.

So when you read and hear these statements Paul makes to them about things like speaking in tongues and prophesying, you need to know that there were things done that looked and sounded very similar to speaking in tongues and prophesying that were happening down the road in these pagan temples, often surrounded by injustice and all kinds of immorality. Paul didn’t want the Christians to worship like the pagans, and Jesus doesn’t want us to either.

Prophecy and Tongues

Paul could have been very critical of the Corinthians about their worship services, which put more of the spotlight on them than on Jesus. He could’ve reminded them that giving a prophecy was claiming to speak for God, and if that prophecy went against scripture, or it just didn’t come to pass, that person was a false prophet and had committed the sin of blasphemy. They were telling people God said something that He did not. That’s one of the worst sins in the Bible, and false prophets were dealt with harshly.

Paul could’ve reminded them that speaking in tongues was given to the church so that the gospel could be communicated to people who spoke other languages. Babbling in a language that no one understood was not a spiritual gift. It was something that the pagan temples did, and something people possessed by evil spirits did. And it was something Jesus taught against when He was asked about prayer — that we shouldn’t go babbling on like the pagans do in their prayers. Paul could’ve been very strict about those two gifts and how they were used.

Instead, Paul was gentle with them and reminded them that there is an order to creation, and an order in our worship, and an order in our spiritual lives... and that order doesn’t center around us showing off our gifts. Even when we think we’re doing it out of love. God doesn’t ask for a show or extravagance. He asks for faithfulness.

Paul, in His gentleness and love, encourages them to seek Jesus and His leadership in their lives, telling them:

1 Corinthians 14:39–40 NIV

39 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 40 But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.

The Plan

Think back with me just for a moment about the day Jesus planted the church's first seeds. After His baptism, facing temptation by the devil in the wilderness, and then going out to the cities of Galilee, preaching, teaching, and healing everyone who came to Him, Jesus got exhausted. And He was exhausted, not just because of the work that He had done. It says that as He looked out upon the multitude of people who still needed help hearing about, learning, and having their lives transformed by His grace, He thought they looked like sheep without a shepherd, and He was exhausted thinking about all the work there was still left to do.

What Jesus did next made all the difference in the world. He did not make a big sign outside His tent that said help wanted. He did not put an ad in the newspaper or give word to the town crier (however they spread news back then), and He didn’t start passing around a clipboard for people to sign up to start this new thing called the church. When Jesus went fishing for people, He didn’t use a spiritual fishing pole with a bobber and bait, sitting there, waiting for serendipity and someone to swim along and take a bite. He fished with a net. Jesus wasn’t even looking for volunteers. He was going to make disciples. The gospels tell us that Jesus chose them. Just 12 to start with. And He went to them, called them by name, and asked them to follow Him.

There were probably a couple of them who had been following John the Baptist and who were hoping that Jesus would pick them. But Peter, the one Jesus would choose to leave in charge when He was gone, may have been out fishing that day. Matthew, the one whose gospel contains so much that Jesus taught, was a tax collector and probably wouldn’t have been allowed near Jesus if everyone else had their way. Jesus would remind them later that they did not choose Him. He chose them. He saw in them what they could not see in themselves. And because there was a plan that was bigger than any of them... bigger than all of them put together... Jesus gave them what they needed, when they needed it, so that they could follow Him and make disciples themselves — leading others to Jesus and sharing with them from Jesus, what those new disciples needed when they needed it so that they could go on and make disciples with Jesus, and so on, and so on…

The scriptures tell us plenty about that plan. They tell us what we should learn, what we should do, and how we should be changing if we are following Jesus and growing in our faith.

We do not serve a God of dead letters. We serve a risen Savior in a living word that we connect to and communicate with every day in prayer. Not so much in what we say to Him, but in what He says to us as we get to know Him more through His Word. We serve follow that plan as He teaches us to love those sheep that He brings into our lives, serving with them and caring for them. When Jesus went to heaven, He did not hand over His crown to the disciples or the rings to the church. He is still on the throne, and He is still in charge, and when we get off the path He has sent for us, He will reign us back in.

A lot of this letter to the Corinthians dealt with relationships and how they showed themselves in their weekly worship services. But Paul didn’t do disciple-making work just on Sundays or the Sabbath day. Neither did Jesus. The spirit of this teaching, about using all of our gifts from God in an orderly fashion, with that humble and powerful love of God, and submitting to His plan in how we put it all together, is meant for our daily lives. It was not meant just for the people who sit next to you in the pew. It was meant for those you live with and work with and those you sit with at the ball games. It was meant for those you see in your volunteer organizations And for those you keep bumping into at the grocery store. But not everyone.

Jesus loves everyone and wants them all saved and living eternal life with Him today, but He did not make you into a one-size-fits-all person. He gave you specific gifts in specific ways, with some very specific life circumstances and some specific stories to tell from those circumstances. I firmly believe that every single one of you has a sermon in you that you are living out each day, even if you’ve never put it in words. Someone in your life is watching and listening to that sermon, and it’s speaking to them. And that may be the person or people that God calls you to make disciples with.

We don’t have to wait and hope for serendipity. God has a plan. He’s given us enough of that plan in His Word to get us started, and he’s given us a direct connection with Himself when we need to ask for help. He has given us the Church: 2000 years of people working together, striving to follow that plan, and seeing their efforts being redeemed every day as a testimony to us that He can and will do it with and through us, too, if we’re willing. It’s up to you. I can promise you it won’t be easy. And I can promise you won’t be alone.

Are you willing to let go of that desire to see what you can do?

To see what Bethel can do?

To see what the Church can do?

Are you willing to turn your eyes to see what Jesus is doing in and around and through us?

Closing Prayer

Lord, we don’t know why you love us. We want to feel useful. We want to feel like we’ve done something good for you. We think we have heard, or maybe even sang beautiful music, but we have never heard you sing, and we know if we did, everything else would sound like senseless noise. We try to do our best with everything we do, but in the end, we know you could do all of it better yourself. We know we serve you not because you need us to but because we see that faithfully sharing our gifts transforms who we are. Today, as we surrender our gifts to you, to be set aside or employed, to be put in order by you for your glory, we pray that the way you are transforming our lives in our submission to you brings you praise. In Jesus name, amen.