Tongues and Prophecy
Holy Spirit Power, Holy Spirit Purpose • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 46:11
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Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.
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.
Earlier, Paul had described what the Spirit does in us - the gifts the Spirit provides us, and how the Spirit unifies the body. But today, as we open chapter 14, we see what we are to do in the Spirit.
We’ve seen the Spirit’s Power and Purpose is to build, unify, and draw the church to Christ. However, how we utilize the gifts of the Spirit greatly matter.
Thesis: We must not waste the power and purpose the Spirit has given us.
Intro:
This is one of those chapters we want to definitely want to make sure we get right, that we understand exactly what Paul is doing because it is so easy to deviate from the path he is paving for us.
I always want to make sure I’m clear and thorough in my preaching, but even more so on this topic - tongues, prophecy, the gifts of the Spirit - we’re Pentecostal, it’s sort of “our thing”, right?
So I want to be able to make it well understood and comprehendible, and something that each of you can take as you go and say, “This is why we believe what we believe about these things.”
Because, if we can’t explain what we believe, or why we believe it, why should anyone care that we believe it?
And what we believe about the Holy Spirit matters, because we want to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in the Purpose of the Holy Spirit.
But if we are going to operate in the Gifts of the Spirit, we must practice consistency, proceed with caution, and pray for clarity.
In the Spirit We Practice Consistency
In the Spirit We Practice Consistency
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
I said this last week, but I’ll say it again - the gifts must be desired with love as our motivation. Paul ends chapter 12, if you remember, by saying “But earnestly desire the higher gifts”. (1 Corinthians 12:31)
And if you remember, in the Greek and in context, if we were to truly read that, it would sound more like, “But you all desire the higher gifts for the wrong reason”, but Paul gives hope.
He said, “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” And that more excellent way is love.
1 Corinthians 13 is the “love” chapter, it’s read at weddings and quoted in movies, and we did a whole series on it a year or two ago. It’s a beautiful chapter of Scripture and worth the study.
It defines what love is, and what it is not, what it does, and does not do...
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Since most of us are already familiar with it, we’re diving into chapter 14 from chapter 12 for the purposes of this series, but it’s still central.
Love is the thing we’re told to pursue. It’s the key to unlocking so much of the gift’s power and purpose.
The word Paul uses here for pursue is “diokete” (Διώκετε) and it means to chase with intensity. To almost violently run after someone.
It’s like a scene from a James Bond film where he’s going after the bad guy through all the streets, jumping over motorcycles, through glass, that sort of thing.
Paul says we are to pursue love like that! Not recklessly, but relentlessly.
Without love what do the gifts even matter? 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
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.
Love is the core, that’s the foundation, that’s where we must start from.
THEN, Paul instructs us to desire earnestly spiritual gifts. Not the “higher gifts”, either, the “spiritual gifts”.
In fact, Paul again uses the words initially used by the Corinthian Christians who wrote to him about these matters to begin with, he called them, pneumatika (πνευματικά), the gifts of the Spirit.
He does not refer to them as the “charismata” here, the gracious gifts, likely because Paul is emphasizing the fact they are given by the Spirit, even though He is telling them to pursue them.
The desire for them, in this context, is in reference to their use collectively and faithfully in the service of the Spirit - it is not a personal yearning to have something you didn’t possess before hand.
Again, Paul condemns using the gifts as a way of being higher than others.
The church should want the gifts and to exercise the gifts in a way that will benefit the church, not in a way that propels an individual to some sort of stardom or spotlight.
Then Paul says “but especially that you prophecy”. Well, what is prophecy? It’s just having dreams and visions and knowing the future, right?
No.
It’s just knowing things, like what’s being whispered in the king’s bedroom, like Elisha back in 2 Kings 6 (verse 12), right?
No.
The word Paul uses here is “prophetenete”, (προφητεύητε), and it’s a word that means to “speak an inspired message”, and typically it is a message meant to encourage obedience to God.
Now, it may be a warning or a message to prepare for a future event, but it ultimately is meant to keep us in continued obedience.
So if Paul has his way, his preference would be not that we all speak loudly in tongues, but that we “prophecy”.
Why? He tells us.
For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.
This is where tongues starts to get confusing for people, so let’s try to understand it.
The Spirit gives the gifts, we established that in chapter 12, verses 7 through 11. But now Paul says when a person speaks in a tongue, he’s not speaking to men but to God.
Nobody is going to understand him, he’s uttering mysteries in the Spirit.
We do know the Spirit plays a role in intercessory prayer:
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
But the speaker does not know what’s being said, necessarily, and neither does anyone else around him, only God. We will see this later in verse 14
For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.
So this sort of prayer is not for everyone else, it’s for the speaker whose spirit is communicating with God’s spirit.
We see this also commanded in Jude 1:20
But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,
What Paul is likely trying to make them understand is that not all tongues are for public declarations, some are for their personal prayer, similar to what Jude is referencing.
Paul did mention various kinds of tongues, back in chapter 12, verse 10 (1 Corinthians 12:10) when listing out the gifts of the Spirit - so both are possible here.
But likely, while Paul is mentioning praying in tongues, what he is preferring the Corinthian church do is prophecy, or give an utterance in a tongue that is interpreted and treated as though it were a prophecy.
Let me explain: Tongues can be a form of prophecy.
In Acts 2, Peter makes it clear that while the people were speaking in tongues, they were also able to “prophecy”, but we don’t see anywhere where an individual actually does prophecy on the day of Pentecost.
Still, Peter gets up, quoting the prophet Joel, he says,
Acts 2:14–17 (ESV)
But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
“ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
And Paul is in agreement with this as we will see as we go on:
On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.
We don’t often think of a message in tongues as a prophecy, but when it is interpreted, it can be.
Again, at its core, what is prophecy but an inspired message given to direct obedience to God?
And tongues are tied closely to prophecy - as we also know at some point in the future they will both cease:
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
So while we have these gifts, we must practice consistency in how we use them, and we use them in love, and we use them in the right arena.
If you have a prayer language, and you decided to just start blurting out your tongues, and there’s no interpretation, well then you’re operating in that wrongly.
However, if you have the gift of tongues, and are given an utterance for the whole church, then an interpretation must occur, because then it is prophetic in nature, and it should be weighed and understood.
The Spirit empowers us for the building up of the church with these gifts, but if they are not done decently and in order (as Paul instructs later in this chapter), then they are not used consistently.
And they are likely not done in love, because when we love others we want the gifts to be effective for building others up - that’s their core purpose.
and then Paul ties this all together in verse 5
Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.
Paul just spent - and we spent two weeks reading - chapter 12 telling us how nobody is greater than another within the church, right?
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
yet here in verse 5, he says, “The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues”. Why, then, does he contradict himself?
He doesn’t.
Paul is saying the one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues without an interpretation. He said, “unless someone interprets”.
Because the person who does not have an interpretation is just wasting air. It does nothing for the church body. It may make them feel good, it might make them feel spiritual, but it isn’t building up anything but their own ego.
Again, to be clear, this would be a message in tongues, not a personal, quiet prayer for the benefit of ones self.
But that’s why Paul says the one who prophesies is greater - because they’re actually doing something for the building up of the church.
So we see, in the Spirit we must practice consistency with these things, or we waste the power and purpose of the gift He has given.
In the Spirit We Proceed with Caution
In the Spirit We Proceed with Caution
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?
The obvious answer to Paul’s question is, “You would be no benefit.” Because without an interpretation, nobody’s going to understand you anyway.
In the Greek, Paul actually begins by saying “brothers and sisters”, the word for brothers would be gender-neutral, and uses a small conjunction “ain” (ἐὰν) which is normally translated “if”.
Paul will use this about seven times between verses 6 and 19, and it is meant to guide the hypothetical questions he’s asking into a response that’s agreeable to Paul’s reasoning.
In other words, if we were reading this today, it may sound something like, “Now, I’m sure you’ll all agree, if I came to you speaking in tongues, how would you benefit if I didn’t also bring some revelation, knowledge, prophecy, or teaching?”
And again, the answer would then be, “there would be no benefit.”
He’s not saying tongues isn’t a legitimate gift, he’s already established it is, back in chapter 12 (v. 10). But so is a gift of knowledge, prophecy, wisdom (here the word “revelation” probably relates to a word of wisdom).
Of course we know teaching is a gift of the Spirit as well, we see it in the list that’s in Romans 12, which goes as follows:
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
And here we see other gifts, like teaching, that are for building up the body - serving, exhortation, contributing, leading, doing acts of mercy… again, these are done as enabled by the Spirit from a place of love.
But Paul continues
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?
Again, Paul asks a rhetorical question indicating that their answer should agree with the point he’s trying to make.
If these instruments don’t give out the right notes, it’s not going to make beautiful, harmonious music, it’ll be noise. It’ll be chaos.
And in the case of a bugle, Paul says, “if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?”.
Now this holds a lot of meaning to the Jewish Christian who may read this. Especially in light of Pentecost, and Joel 2, which Peter connected to Pentecost.
Joel 2:1 reads
Blow a trumpet in Zion;
sound an alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,
If there is chaos, if there are all these different voices going in and through and past one another, how will we hear the one that matters?
A bugle was not just used as a means for a war cry, but also for alarm.
Take a second and consider Ezekiel 3.
“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.
If we have all these different things flying around, different noises, different utterances, who will be able to hear the watchman who blows the trumpet of warning
He gets drowned out by the noise. Paul draws a similar conclusion:
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.
Paul is saying, “you might be speaking to God, you may be speaking to the air, how would anyone else really know?”
He’s not scolding praying in tongues, here. He’s making it clear that they are for a private purpose - IF THEY ARE DONE WITHOUT INTERPRETATION.
Because, as we saw last week, the Holy Spirit’s role is to grow us, lead us, as He grows and leads the church closer to Christ.
If you’re praying in tongues, nobody else knows what you’re saying. Your spirit may be receiving comfort, edification, or what have you, but nobody else is getting that.
You feel good, but what has that done to grow the body? Again, not that your personal growth or closeness to God is a bad thing - not at all!
But when the church comes together, it doesn’t benefit anyone else if it’s being delivered to the whole congregation and there’s no interpreting it, and if there’s no interpreting it, it’s just noise.
So we must disregard, ignore it, or tune it out at some point. So when we operate in the Spirit, we must weigh what is happening, and proceed with caution.
Paul continues...
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.
The word for languages here is the Greek “phonen” (φωνῶν), which can also be translated as “sounds”, it’s where we get the word “phonetics” or “telephone”.
This may have, for Paul, brought to mind the various kinds of sounds of the city of Corinth, people working, vendors haggling, people yelling, speaking Greek, Latin, Aramaic.
Philosophers speaking, drunks singing, children playing, others crying and even musical instruments in the background.
But the purpose and force of those sounds must be understood by those who hear them or their meaning lost.
Paul said,
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
Without love it is noise, without interpretation it is also meaningless.
He will be a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker to a foreigner.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a country or an area where you don’t know the language, but I have. Most people on the planet know a little English to be able to speak so we understand, but to be a foreigner who doesn’t know the language where you are?
it can be terrifying.
But in Paul’s time, if a foreigner were in town, sometimes they’re called “barbarians” in scripture, their native language would rarely be known. So not only is he going to be terrified, but people might fear him.
Now shift that imagery to being within the church. Imagine how that would play out, and the chaos that would follow.
This is why Paul wants us to proceed with caution.
So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
The Spirit’s purpose is to build up and empower the church - the gifts, and those who operate within the gifts, are used by the Spirit for growing the church, both closer to Christ and gathering more of the lost to Christ.
If we do not proceed with caution when we operate in the Spirit, we may well be wasting the power and purpose of the gifts we are given.
In the Spirit We Pray for Clarity
In the Spirit We Pray for Clarity
Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.
The word for “interpret” in the Greek that Paul uses is dier-mee-neu-ee (διερμηνεύῃ), which simply means to explain it.
Again, it’s not a translation, so much as it is an explanation. But if interpretation is a Gift of the Spirit, why must a person then pray for that as well?
Well some speculate that when Paul is using the term “a tongue” (singular), that he’s being sarcastic and referring to a pagan practice that is similar to the utterance of tongues we see in the book of Acts.
I don’t believe Paul is truly trying to do that here - but it is a reminder that there are pagan practices that can mirror what the Holy Spirit does.
There were (and still are) pagans who would pray “in a tongue” and it was just gibberish.
There was no sense or structure to what they were praying. There was definitely no way to interpret - either under the influence of the Holy Spirit or through an actual translator - because there was nothing to interpret.
It was just nonsense.
We see similar manifestations of spirits (plural) in the Kundalini cults of India, that have even the infiltration of some Christian churches, these spirits, and we sweep it under a rug and call it the Holy Spirit.
Church this is why discernment matters so much.
The enemy is so quick to counterfeit what God has done, and will do, and then expand upon his own counterfeit. All the more, we must remember and strive to practice 1 John 4:1
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Paul, I believe, wants the speaker not pray that he may interpret, not because he’s doing so unauthentically, but in order to prove that it is authentic.
Gibberish speaking, or vainly repeating words or phrases in tongues is not tongues from the Holy Spirit.
In fact, Jesus condemns such a practice when he says
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
That’s not what we’re to do - even when praying in the Spirit. As Paul goes on:
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.
We are not heaping up empty phrases if our spirit is praying with THE Spirit. We don’t just zone out when we are praying in the Spirit, as if we’re in a trance, either.
We pray with our spirit, but we also pray with our mind.
For Paul, the idea of praying and having some focus in our mind is nothing new. He’s mentioned it already to the Corinthian Christians back in chapter 2.
1 Corinthians 2:16 (ESV)
“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
If we have the mind of Christ, and we are praying in the Holy Spirit, and we are praying with our human spirit, our prayers will be truly powerful, one would think. Finely tuned to the will of God, and we would see powerful answers to prayer as we’re praying in closeness to Him...
Especially in light of Paul’s saying
For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
When we are praying “in the Spirit”, we are truly pouring the core of who we are into such a prayer, our mind should not be empty, instead I would liken it more to the filter, keeping guard over our hearts as we pray.
In fact, Paul says if he is praying in the Spirit with a mind that is unfruitful, then we must be challenged to not let our mind be absent - instead pray with your mind also!
We sing with our spirit, but we sing with our mind, also. And some of you, maybe you’ve done this. I have, myself. You pray in tongues, and soon you’re singing in tongues. Its worship, its private, but its worship.
Of course we sing with our mind, we see this throughout Scripture as a type of worship, even further down our page when Paul says that when they come together someone may have a hymn… (In verse 26).
We know elsewhere Paul instructed the church to sing
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
But if we are to sing in the Spirit, our mind should still also be active.
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.
If someone is ignorant as to what is going on, how will can they join in or know what’s going on, or - for that matter - not be weirded out?
And Paul actually says something fascinating, “How can anyone in the position of an outsider say ‘Amen’…?” Paul, whether he means to do this or not, gives us a little clue of church history here.
The word “Amen” was becoming a typical Christian word of agreement. It became a way for the church to acknowledge their agreement with what’s being said.
When we say “Amen” in a church service, we’re in agreement, we’re excited for what’s said. It’s not really something we do to hype up the pastor, but it helps! (I joke)
Then Paul concludes...
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.
Paul isn’t bragging here. He is giving credit to God alone for this gift, and he likely believes that in private, he prays in tongues more than they do.
Or, perhaps he’s suggesting because he understands and appreciates the gifts more immensely than they do, he is speaking qualitatively.
Either way, he seems to be speaking a little hyperbolically, to make his point. He’s definitely speaking hyperbolically when he says he’d rather speak 5 words with his mind that instructs others than 10,000 that make no sense to anyone.
So he is reiterating here the point that we must have clarity when operating in the gifts. Otherwise, we likely waste the power and the purpose for which they were given.
Conclusion:
I’m going to move to close, but the question becomes “How does this impact my life? How does this draw me to Jesus?”
Well, the answer is simple. If we do not use the gifts in the way they’re meant to be used, specifically tongues and prophecy, we’re not drawing anyone to Jesus.
And they are wasted.
Sure, we may have a period of feeling good ourselves, but if we’re not edifying others with the gifts we’ve been given, we’re not using them as they’re intended.
When we are given a gift, whether it is a spiritual gift or a new circular saw, or t-shirt, or necktie, if we don’t use it for the purpose it was given and meant to be used, we’re wasting the gift.
When Jesus told the disciple in Acts
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
He may it clear the gifts and the power that comes with them is for drawing people to Him. That’s part of our mission, to take people to Jesus.
They will have no hope if they are not told of Him, of His death, of His resurrection...
As a church, our ultimate goal is to take them to Jesus, in order that they receive Him, submit their lives to Him, and be changed as well by the Holy Spirit.
If our gifts are just gibberish, just nonsense, just “stuff” that turns people away, we can not be called a church - a church is a launchpad for the Gospel to be preached from.
No, we would be a closet, where the gifts go to be looked at, to be observed, but never used properly.
We are not called to be a closet. We’re called to be a church. If you’re here, and again I’ll ask if you don’t know what your gifts are, or if you’re using them… then today I’d challenge you to find a place of prayer...
PRAY