Sermon Tone Analysis

I. The Reading

[ Scripture Reading ~3 min ]

This is God’s Word, Amen.

II.

The Exhortation

This text begins with a question.

Verse 26 opens with these words:

“What then, brothers?”

Understood another way, this question asks:

“What should you do then, brothers and sisters?” (NET)

What should you, the church of the saints, do when YOU, the church of the saints, come together?

This is a very practical question.

The answer to this practical question will guide the witness and the worship of the church’s chaotic gatherings in Corinth.

But, it is not a question the church in Corinth was asking.

Instead, the apostle asks the question OF them, and FOR them, as a point of order.

“What then, brothers?”

“What should you do?”

The church needs to ask questions like this!

“What should we do?”

Because we are inclined to rest in what we’ve always known.

We cement ourselves in what is comfortable for us.

For nearly two thousand years the Lord has been building His church all over the world — but if we were honest, really honest, we act in our worship gatherings, as if the last 50-70 years is the way church has always been ordered and ought always to be ordered, forever and always, amen!

Week after week, we do the same things when we gather, in almost the same order, with the same people.

And with minor differences of dress or appearance or titles or people, the whole worship gathering orders for us in a very similar manner to the way it was ordered five decades ago, from the call to worship to the invitation and the benediction.

Our Sanctuary has become for us, a time capsule when it is meant to be a transporter of the church to the throne of God in glory!

Hear these words [Revelation 7:9-12]:

With so many people around the throne from a diversity of nations, tribes and tongues, we might expect there would be chaos, but instead there is order - because everyone there in that vision, is ordered around the same purpose - to worship God before the throne and praise His name forever!

That’s our vision, Church!

God is our vision!

And in light of this vision of God upon His throne and the eternal heavenly worship, we should always ask of our gatherings:

“What then, brothers?”

“What should you do”?

What should we do — to represent that picture?

What should we do - to anticipate that scene?

As a whole, we don’t ask this question, because we've already determined the answer.

We don’t ask “what should we do?” because:

“That’s just the way we’ve always done things.”

Church — WE have defined for ourselves, what WE believe is decent, and orderly in God’s Church, and we act accordingly.

WE define “decently and in order” by our own comfort and culture, which means we are looking at the wrong picture and building towards the wrong goal.

God is not a God of confusion but of peace.

God would have us look to Him and ask “What then?” as we order our gatherings of worship.

Imagine having hundreds or thousands of pieces to a jigsaw puzzle poured out on a table, but you’ve lost the box with the picture of the puzzle!

Imagine how difficult that puzzle would be to put together.

Consider how much time it would take, if you didn’t know what you were working toward; if you couldn’t see what the picture was supposed to look like!

Your labor to construct that puzzle would be slow, frustrating, trial and error at best, aimless even, and may ultimately fail to represent the glory of the final picture.

The gathering of the church to worship God can be like that disconnected puzzle without a picture, if we fail to ask the good question: what are we doing when we come together?

There are many parts to our body, but without a guide to how they all fit together, without a vision for the finished form, the puzzle remains a mixed up pile of pieces, dumped out on a desk, piece upon piece, color upon color, turned upside down and every which way into heaps of chaos, with no order, no plan, making no sense to anyone.

It is still one whole puzzle, but it is broken into many unintelligible parts with no discernable picture or end.

But if we had the box, we would have the picture.

If we had the picture, we would have a vision for what the puzzle will look like when it is built correctly.

If we have this vision, then we have a plan.

We have a guide.

And in the same way, God gives His Church a picture of worship, a vision of what a worship gathering should look like when it is built correctly - and that vision is Him!

And God gifts us and guides us by His Holy Spirit and His Holy Word into a worship that strengthens the believer through service, and convicts the unbeliever and outsider.

So if “God is really among you,” — “What then?”

“What should you do?”

“What should we do, brothers and sisters?”

III.

The Teaching

14.26

Notice the words: “each one has.”

The apostle is not addressing our situation - he doesn’t know our situation.

He is speaking to the situation on the ground in Corinth and what he knows about what is taking place in their worship.

The church is coming together, as they should and as is right.

And being one body with many parts, they are coming together as one body with many individual offerings and gifts.

And the implication is, that the gifts were being used in a chaotic, individualistic way so that it puffed up the individuals and failed to build up the church.

“Each one has a hymn.”

The word “hymn” is the word [ ψαλμός ].

It’s a Psalm!

It could have been a song of praise that the person wrote themselves to contribute to the gathering of worship, but it was probably an Old Testament Psalm to sing.

One has a lesson.

This is the word for “teaching.”

One has a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.

The apostle does not view this as a problem.

This is a blessing!

The various gifts and offerings by the many parts of the body represent the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in the church!

Each gift is given as God wills, to build up the church.

The question for us is to ask today is this - do our gatherings represent a diversity of gifts like these?

Or do our gatherings represent only a few of the gifts, like that of teaching?

Do we limit and restrict the gifts of God in the way we have so ordered ourselves when we gather?

Charismatic churches allow for a variety of gifts and that easily falls into chaos.

That’s what the apostle is addressing.

But what about us non-charismatic churches on the other end of the spectrum?

Are we limiting the building of the church by limiting God and those He has gifted for us?

Are we willing to create space in the gathering of the saints for all worshipers to offer their gifts in service of the Church for the building up of the saints as God empowers?

That is not easily done in a large group gathering with order.

But it may be done in a small group gathering!

This is why small groups are an important movement of our membership.

This is why I urge every one of us to be a faithful participant in a Sunday School class or small group.

Small groups allow the church to do what cannot be done in a Large Group Gathering like this.

Small groups are another form of the saints gathered.

Small groups are “ministry incubators” where you may discover, develop and exercise your spiritual gift in a way that this large gathering does not support.

This is why I encourage teaching in Sunday School, but not ONLY teaching.

Do other things as well as you gather in smaller groups.

Give opportunities for a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation or whatever God gives!

As a member with Southside Baptist Church, if you can only participate in one thing we would ask you to prioritize the Large Group Gathering - this is where the saints assemble and receive the preaching of God’s Word and witness to the future worship that awaits us together in glory.

The Large Group Gathering is the Sunday morning gathering for worship.

But if that is all you do, if you only participate in Sunday morning worship, you will miss out on some of the richest opportunities for spiritual growth and service in the church and mission through the church.

I urge everyone to pray and participate in a small group gathering of some kind under the oversight of this church.

As we see in this text, the Spirit of God gives a variety of needed gifts that need to be exercised in the church for the building up of the church.

The apostle says at the end of verse 26: