Who is Worship For?

Intro

Well, I found out at the same time as all of you that I’d be preaching on this subject of tongues this morning. Now I get to push everyone’s buttons and leave here with no friends. It’s going to be great.

But our passage this morning isn’t really about tongues so much as it is about God’s worship. The church in Corinth was abusing the spiritual gifts, especially the gift of tongues, and so in our passage this morning the Apostle Paul is trying to correct these abuses in light of who God is and how he is to be worshipped.

I wonder how many of you have attended a tongue-speaking church? Perhaps some of you here have spoken in tongues in the past. Prior to coming to faith 9 years ago, I had a friend who was taking me to her tongue-speaking church pretty regularly. I knew very little about what the Bible said about these things. But there would be these moments in the church service where everything would be going along fine, I’d be tracking with them, and then all of a sudden the pastor would say “Ok everybody lets speak in tongues!” Off they would go, they took off for the race, I was stuck at the starting line. I was very uncomfortable and turned off from the experience. God was kind to lead me to a different church where the gospel was clearly preached so that the only stumbling block for me was the offense of the cross.

I want to make a few comments at the start of our time together to give you an idea of where I’m going this morning. The first thing I want to say is this. When I did finally come to faith, the first theological topic I wrestled with and spent an incredible amount of time on, was this subject of tongue speaking. And what I discovered was, while there is some room for discussion on the spiritual gifts, there are certain things that are not up for discussion. And I think that much of what passes for tongue-speaking in churches today - like what I experienced before - with just everyone talking all at once and nobody having a clue of what is going on - that would disappear if the clear instructions of were put into practice. So I’m actually not going to spend a lot of time on what I would consider to be the ecstatic and extreme manifestations of tongue-speaking that we see today. I will address it briefly, but it won’t be the emphasis of this message. The Scriptures speak for themselves, and I think that’s going to come out on its own as we sit under the Word this morning. It would be really easy for me to stand up here and just take shots across the bow at people I disagree with. But the only thing that would do is make us feel smug about ourselves, you know? Like, “we already have the correct understanding of this, they don’t, I can’t believe they would do that.”

So I’m not going to go there. Instead, I want us to use this passage in to address the subject of tongue speaking but to then really wrestle with the principles here, so that God’s Word pierces our hearts this morning.

Which takes me to my second preface comment. This sermon is not really about tongue-speaking. It’s about worship, who it is for, and how that ought to make a difference in our lives and church practice. So I’m going to try and address some of the big questions you may have about tongue-speaking by taking us in the direction of the bigger issue of worship. I think that is exactly what Paul is doing in our text, as I hope to show you in more detail in a moment.

Third, some of you are here and you know you disagree with our position on this subject, and you still attend and love our church. Because of my call to ministry, Neva and I have never really been in a setting where we are members of a church where we disagree over issues of doctrine. When we were Baptist, we went to a Baptist Church because I thought I would be a Baptist pastor! When our theology changed, our church changed so I could be faithful to the conviction. What I’m saying is, I don’t know how hard that is for you and your family. But I honor you for putting your love for our church ahead of our disagreements. Christ said people would know we belong to him by our love for one another, not by our agreement on every issue. And you’re modeling that well. So thank you.

My fourth and final preface comment is a spoiler alert. I’m going to give you the main point of my sermon at the beginning which I think is going to help you know where I’m going if you feel like we’re a bit in the weeds this morning. So here it is: The instructions on tongue speaking in the New Testament show us how important it is to God that he be worshipped in ways that we can understand so that he can be praised rightly. Only then will believers be edified, and unbelievers come to faith.

1 Corinthians 14:6–25 ESV

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? If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? 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. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, 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. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. 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. 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? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue. Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. 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.” Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. 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? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 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.

Now, in order to save us some time, I’m not going to read our text now, but I’ll be referring to it as we go and you can follow along in your bulletin or on the screen behind me.

So three questions I want to answer this morning: 1) What is the gift of tongues? 2) Does this gift still exist? 3) Who is worship for?

What is the gift of tongues?

The uniform teaching of Scripture is that God loves his people and sets them free from their sins. The great end of our salvation is worship, as we saw from our select readings in Exodus. It is out of his love that he stresses how important it is for that he is worshipped in ways that we can understand. He wants to be worshipped with our hearts, souls, and minds. He wants his glory and his majesty to be comprehended so that it can be proclaimed in all the cosmos. Everything we read about the gift of tongues in the New Testament speaks clearly to this.

The first occurrence of the gift of tongues was at Pentecost in . The promised Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles which confirmed that something tremendous and new was taking place. Because of their sin and pride, God had previously scattered the people of the world and their languages in at the tower of Babel. But now we see that God is working through the Holy Spirit to bring understanding and communication among people of many different cultures. God is bringing together what was formerly separated, and he uses speech to do it.

What happened at Pentecost was an incredible supernatural work. People from all over the known world heard the apostles speaking in their own native language. These were not languages the Apostles had known previously. God opened their mouths and caused them to speak words of promise, of hope, and of salvation.

We see a similar pattern take place twice more in Acts. Once in Chapter 10 when Gentiles, the outsiders, receive the Holy Spirit. Again in , we find 12 disciples of John the Baptist who had not yet received the Holy Spirit. As soon as they do, they begin speaking in tongues. This was to show that Jesus’ baptism truly was greater than John’s, just as John said it would be in .

In all three occasions in Acts, the gift of tongues is an earthly, real, existing, intelligible language. It was given for the purpose of making the gospel known to the nations and of confirming God’s promises.

These passages in Acts and are all speaking to the same gift, with the same manifestations and use in the church.

Our text this morning falls in this teaching that the Apostle Paul laid down concerning tongues and prophecy. He makes a case in verses 1-5 that the gift of prophecy is superior to how tongues were being practiced at the Church in Corinth. The people there had twisted the teaching on spiritual gifts by putting this enormous emphasis on the gift of tongues. So you had worship services where everyone was speaking in tongues at once, but nobody was interpreting it or understood what was being said. So Paul is saying, “C’mon guys. What good does that do? I’d prefer that you prophecy so that the church will be built. Tongues are great, but they’re not as good as prophecy, unless someone is there to interpret.” Verse 5 is where we get the principle that interpreted tongues are on the same level as prophecy. Uninterpreted tongues - eh, not so great. Prophecy - great. Interpreted tongues - also great.

What we see weaved into verses 6-25 is the importance of using words that people can actually understand. Look at these rhetorical questions Paul uses in verses 6-9 end with him asking, “If you speech is not intelligible, how will anyone understand what you’re saying? It would be like speaking into the air.” He goes on to emphasize this point throughout the passage: There are many languages, all with meaning, but if I do not know the meaning, we are foreigners to each other. Verse 13: If you have the gift of tongues, pray to interpret. He says later in verse 28 that if no one can interpret, keep quiet. Verses 14-15 he stresses the importance of praying and singing in ways that our mind will benefit, which means in ways that we can understand. And then, finally toward the end of the passage, if you speak and no one interprets, outsiders and non-Christians will be repelled from the church.

Everything we see in Acts and in our passage is either an example of a real, earthly language being given to someone who did not previously know it, or it is instructions on how to use this gift of a real, earthly language when it comes upon you.

This would all be pretty straight forward if it wasn’t for a unique turn of events in the beginning of the 20th Century. A teaching was popularized that in addition to tongues that come in the form of real earthly languages, there is also a gift of tongues which comes in the form of ecstatic utterances and private prayer languages. I want to take a moment to address this because if this is something new to you, I want you to be equipped to interact with this teaching and what the Bible says about it. Maybe you’re here and you share this view. In that case I would just ask that you consider a few things and test the Scriptures on this.

Now there have been moments in Church History where this kind of ecstatic, unintelligible utterances have arisen. But it has always come from fringe groups and cults that were dismissed by the Church. But for several reasons, which we don’t have time to get into this morning, this new teaching on tongues took off about a hundred years ago and has now spread itself into many areas of the Evangelical Church today.

The first thing to consider, is that Church History doesn’t acknowledge this ecstatic, unintelligible form of tongues as legitimate. In order to believe this about tongues you first have to say that God decided to skip operating in this way for about 1800 years of Church History.

Secondly, ecstatic, unintelligible tongues doesn’t hold up to this repeated emphasis we see in Scripture on intelligible worship that people can actually understand. We’ll see more about this in just a moment.

Third, we need to consider whether the Scriptural passages that are used to defend ecstatic, unintelligible tongue speaking can bear the weight of the conclusion. There are really only a handful of verses that are used to support this view. One of the primary verses is . Let’s read that verse in its context.

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 ESV

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Some people look at verse 1 and say, you see, Paul mentions the tongues of angels. But in its context, Paul is using a repetition of 4 rhetorical exaggerations to make a point. The only one who understands all mysteries and knowledge is God, so clearly that is an exaggeration. Faith that can move a mountain, that’s a rhetorical exaggeration, and the scenario where Paul gives away everything including his own body to be burned, that’s an exaggeration too. And so it is with this exaggeration of the tongues of angels. With all of this, Paul is simply saying, even if I could do all of these grand and lofty things, If I had wings I could fly, if I didn’t have love, it would be worthless.

Keep in mind that every time angels do show up in Scripture - they speak in earthly languages that were understood.

Another verse used to support ecstatic utterances comes from our passage, Chapter 14 verse 18. Paul says, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.” Again, some people read this as Paul saying that he speaks in tongue in some kind of private prayer language. But that is something which must be forced upon the text. But what is Paul saying in its context? He is emphasizing the importance of worshipping in the Spirit yes but also with our mind, so that it is fruitful to us and to outsiders. If Paul were to be talking about a private prayer language in verse 18, he would be contradicting himself.

You know how people can often be critical simply because they’re jealous? Paul is making sure the Corinthians know that is NOT the case, and so he reminds them that in his Apostolic ministry it has been his great privilege to see God at work through the gift of intelligible, earthly, tongues.

So, friends, consider the Scriptures and what they make known to us. Our God is one of clarity, not one who is shrouded in mystery. Everything we read about tongues shows us that this gift is given to make the person and work of Christ more clear, not less.

Do Tongues Exist Today?

And this takes us to the next really important question: do the gift of tongues exist today? Mountains of books have been written on this. I’m not going to be able to address this in a way that is satisfying to everyone. I’m going to say just enough to lose more friends. Charlie hit on this some last week. I’m basically going to summarize what he said with a couple highlights.

There are two positions on what we call the charismatic gifts, which include the gift of tongues, prophecy and healing. The first position is called continuationist, which means exactly what it sounds like: these gifts still continue and are to be pursued in the regular life of the Christian today. The other position is called cessationist, which means that these gifts have ceased. In other words, God no longer gives these gifts to individuals in the church and are not meant to be pursued in the church’s regular life and practice.

Our position is the cessationist position. Let me be clear about what we DO believe (MATT CHANDLER CRUSTY): we believe that God still works miracles, that he may still use supernatural activity like dreams to help in bringing people to faith, that he still heals (which is why we pray regularly for that), and that he still speaks through his Holy Spirit. However, we do not believe that he does any of this through one particular individual who has a gift to heal, or a gift to speak, like we see in the early church. God still speaks through his Word, and applies it to our hearts in profound and amazing ways. When God works through someone speaking God’s truth to you, that is God using a gift of teaching or exhortation, not what we understand the gift of prophecy to be.

We believe that this position most fits the patterns which we see in Scripture. Miraculous signs and wonders in the Bible are not the norm, but instead appear in clusters when God is up to something new in his great plan of Salvation.

You can think of this position a bit like a row of dominoes. Once the first domino falls, the rest follow. The office of Apostle was divinely appointed by Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Paul says in that he was the last of the Apostles, which is why he instructs Timothy and Titus to appoint elders and not apostles in the churches. So the office of Apostle has ceased. The office of prophet is almost always grouped with that of Apostle, as in where we read that the foundation of the church is built on the teaching of the apostles and prophets. As Charlie pointed out last week, the New Testament prophet is a continuation of the Old Testament prophet. This is why Peter says in that we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, knowing this first of all that no prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation. New Testament prophets spoke authoritatively like the prophets of Old. Once the foundation of the church was laid, like the office of Apostle, the office of prophet ceased.

Our text this morning falls in this teaching that the Apostle Paul laid down concerning tongues and prophecy. He makes a case in verses 1-5 that the gift of prophecy is superior to how tongues were being practiced at the Church in Corinth. The people there had twisted the teaching on spiritual gifts by putting this enormous emphasis on the gift of tongues. So you had worship services where everyone was speaking in tongues at once, but nobody was interpreting it or understood what was being said. So Paul is saying, “C’mon guys. What good does that do? I’d prefer that you prophecy so that the church will be built. Tongues are great, but they’re not as good as prophecy, unless someone is there to interpret.” Verse 5 is where we get the principle that interpreted tongues are on the same level as prophecy. Uninterpreted tongues - eh, not so great. Prophecy - great. Interpreted tongues - also great.

Paul says in that an interpreted tongue accomplishes what prophecy accomplishes, with the added miracle of speaking in a previously unknown language. But if prophecy has ceased, and prophecy had the same function as interpreted tongues, then tongues also ceased. And, just as healings often accompanied the gospel going forth in the world, so too then has the gift of healing ceased. If individuals still had the gift of healing, then like Charlie said, they’d be over at the hospital with the kids instead of the magicians who are just doing their best to bring out a smile.

At this point I expect 2 questions. 1) Why does Paul tell us that he wants all to prophesy, how is that helpful, if the gift has ceased? Remember that Paul cannot possibly be envisioning a scenario where everyone really does Prophesy. He just said in chapter 12 that not everyone gets the same gifts. So what he is doing is trying to pastorally shift this church, where everyone was speaking in tongues - or at least thought they were, and trying to pastorally and winsomely shift them to something greater.

2) Why isn’t there an explicit instruction on when the tongues have ceased? I can’t answer this 100% concretely. But I think of it like what we know about the second coming: which is very little! We don’t know when. And that’s so we don’t become lazy. Paul had an expectation that Christ was coming soon - and that it could happen at any time. He says in Chapter 13 all the gifts will pass away when the perfect comes. If we knew when the gifts

But at the end of the day, whether you believe these still exist or not, the use of tongues must be submitted to the weight and instruction of Scripture. And as I said at the beginning, if modern practices of tongues applied the clear instruction of Scripture, then I think most of what we see as tongue speaking today would cease.

Who is Worship For?

Now, lets come back again and look at our text in more detail. 8 days ago this was going to be point 1. Ultimately, where Paul is driving us in this text is to shift our focus back to who worship is really for. Many of us probably know this is a Sunday School answer: worship is for God. Yet, in our thoughts and practice, it is very easy for us to start to drift. And we tend to drift in one of two directions. One is where we start to emphasize evangelism or the number of conversions and baptisms, and the church’s worship and ministry begins to focus almost entirely on people outside the church. The other direction we can drift in is where the church’s worship and ministry is primarily for its members, people who are already in the church.

When we begin to drift in either direction in our worship and ministry practice, very unhealthy cycles begin. If we start to emphasize numbers and conversions, you start to get the revolving door effect. You see people coming to faith almost as quickly as they leave the church, because the need for discipleship, growth, pastoring and care is almost forgotten about. But the other unhealthy cycle is one where the church becomes very inward focused. Tim Keller describes this in your reflection quote in the bulletin. Christians begin to think that worship and ministry is primarily for them. Over time, the worship and ministry of the church becomes very uninviting to outsiders. So members stop inviting them. The pastor begins to only think about ministry to people on the inside. And the cycle repeats itself.

Rhetorical question: what direction do we tend to drift in?

Let’s look at what Paul’s assumptions for the church’s worship were. Look with me at verses 16 and 23-25.

1 Corinthians 14:16 ESV

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?

1 Corinthians 14:23–25 ESV

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? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 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.

Who is Paul’s concern for in these verses? The outsider. Someone who does not understand the faith.

But now look at verses 5, 12, 17, and 19. Who is his concern for there? That the church, that is believing Christians are being built up. So what are Paul’s assumptions? Let’s lay this out with some points of application for us.

First, that non-Christians are expected to be present in worship. Just as the people of Israel were to expect the nations to be present in their worship so that they might be summoned to praise and adoration of their God, so too is the Church to expect outsiders in their worship and ministry practice. What is the first step to reversing the drift toward becoming inward-focused? Expectation. Expect that your neighbor is going to show up and sit next to you. Expect that someone else’s neighbor is going to be sitting behind you.

My mom always said that she was raised to expect a guest to show up for dinner. Which meant she always made way more than we needed for any given meal. And you know what? Often we did have neighbors or family over, and they didn’t feel like they were intruding, because there was more than enough for them.

When we expect outsiders to be present at each gathering of the church, it has a way of making you notice things you hadn’t noticed before. It makes you aware of the person sitting by themselves looking really uncomfortable. And that expectation is often what moves us to action, to being inviting, hospitable, and inclusive of others.

Second, non-Christians are going to understand the worship and practice of Christians. Regardless of our conclusions about tongues, here’s something we cannot miss: Paul told the Corinthian church to adapt its worship because non-Christians are present. And what were his instructions? To adapt to the culture? To go soft on the teaching of the Bible? No? It’s much more simple and far more challenging. His instruction is this: to speak and worship in ways that outsiders will understand.

Like many of you, this is a challenge for me. I’ve become very fluent in what we might call Calvinese, highly theological language and the quotes of dead bearded white guys. But here’s what I’ve realized: a lot of the language of Reformed theology is a tongue unto itself. And my Calvinese is useless in building up others unless it is interpreted for them.

So what does this mean for us? Well, those of us who have a hand in the planning of worship, in the organizing of ministry, in the leading of ministry groups, should think very intentionally about the language that we use during our time together. This does not mean we shouldn’t use theological language and terms; it does mean that we should be able to explain these terms and explain to people why it matters. This does not mean we need to refrain from theological debate or thoughts on politics, it does mean that Sunday morning or our small groups are probably not the best place for those conversations.

When the worship and practice of Christians is not intelligible to outsiders, it is a form of judgment. In verse 21, Paul quotes from , which was a prophecy of judgment on the people of Israel. God was going to use Assyria to judge Israel, and Assyrian was a language that the Israelites would not understand. So uninterpreted tongues were a judgment to outsiders because it would prevent them from hearing and receiving the gospel. This is why prophecy was superior: it could build up Christians and convict non-Christians at the same time.

Third, non-Christians will fall under conviction and be converted through comprehensible worship and practice. We believe in the call to share our faith at this church. This is why we just had Dr. Randy Newman come share with us a couple of weeks ago. Every Christian believer is called to share their faith with others. And yet, we must dismiss this idea that evangelism is primarily a solo endeavor. We don’t have time to go through all the examples, but over and over again in the Scripture there is an emphasis on the redeemed community being a powerful apologetic for the truth of the gospel.

When the Samaritan woman at the well ran back to her village and celebrated Christ before them, they were drawn out to come to him. People will be drawn to Christ not simply when we tell the gospel to them, but when we celebrate and live out the gospel before them.

Fourth, believers will grow in their faith. You put this fourth point along side the other three and it looks like a logical impossibility. But over and over again Paul says that the worship of the church is useless unless believers are being built up. How can worship be a place for Christians and non-Christians to benefit at the same time? How can our Bible studies and groups be enriching to Christians while being open and inviting to non-Christians?

There’s only one way that this can happen. If we truly keep Christ at the center, then we will take seriously all that he calls us to in our worship and practice. What does this look like? Fostering expectation for non-Christians to be present in our worship and ministries. An emphasis on clarity over complexity. An awareness of the felt needs of our friends and neighbors and a desire to apply the gospel to where they are. A willingness to create space in our ministries and groups for someone new to enter in.

If you, like me, have a long way to go in some of these areas, then lets pray and encourage one another so that we might grow and see the body built up as God intends for it to be.