Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: 1 Corinthians 14:26-40

1 Corinthians 14:26–40 (ESV)

What then, brothers?

When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.

Let all things be done for building up.

If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret.

But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.

Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.

If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent.

For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.

For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.

As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches.

For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says.

If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home.

For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

Or was it from you that the word of God came?

Or are you the only ones it has reached?

If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.

If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.

So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.

But all things should be done decently and in order.

Paul summarizes, adds a little to, and encapsulates all that we’ve been seeing throughout this series.

So today, if you take nothing else home with you, please understand this:

Thesis: The Holy Spirit’s Purpose is to Empower the Church to Draw People to Christ.

Intro: We know this is the Holy Spirit’s purpose - to point us to Christ.

Jesus said:

John 16:14 (ESV)

He will glorify me...

The Holy Spirit drives us and conforms us to Christ, that’s what we’ll see happen in all of us, as His power and purpose drives us to Jesus.

The Spirit is who convicts us of sin, who prompts us to prayer, who makes us better versions of ourselves as He makes us more like Jesus Christ.

From that point, we are then used by Him to draw people to Jesus.

When I wrapped up writing this sermon manuscript, I almost was a little sad.

Not that I’m not looking forward to Easter, or getting back to the Gospel of Mark, I am!

But I want to dive more into the Holy Spirit.

I want to see more of the Holy Spirit in the church.

I want to see His move in lives - some of the conversations I have had since we started this series has been so encouraging.

I truly believe the Holy Spirit is empowering this church and preparing us to use us for a new season, drawing people to Jesus.

I really do.

So today, as we wrap this up we’ll look once more at the Spirit’s Purpose, as well as the Spirit’s Peace, and the Spirit’s process within the church.

We look once again as Paul emphasizes the Spirit’s purpose...

The Spirit’s Purpose

You may notice what this is, you may not, but what Paul just gave the church is an order of service in a sense.

You sing, there’s a time for teaching and revelation, a time for the Spirit to move.

He mentions hymns, and we see instruction on that elsewhere when he gives the Ephesians a similar instruction:

Ephesians 5:18–21 (ESV)

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

In our text, Paul also mentions a lesson, because the church is to be dedicated to the apostle’s teachings, similar to how they were in the book of Acts

Teaching is core to the church, it’s the one thing people don’t often appreciate enough.

We love the songs, and the performance of music, we want an experience at the altar call, but the teaching in between, we tend to bypass that because we want - if we’re honest - we want to be entertained.

Paul warned Timothy about this very thing:

2 Timothy 4:3–4 (ESV)

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers

to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

We all can easily slip into this, no one is immune.

Weak sermons that are high on emotion but low on Scripture, high on passion low on preaching the Gospel - they’re intoxicating.

This is why Paul stresses the fact that teaching is vital to the church.

He said to the Romans

Good, sound teaching that is repetitive, that is educating the people, growing them, that’s something the Holy Spirit uses.

It is a harsh judgment of God to have no teaching in the land, but it is even harsher judgment we bring upon ourselves when we reject it.

Hosea 4:6 (ESV)

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me.

And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

I’ll move on..

Because Paul goes on, here in verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 14, and he mentions “a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation”, and that is allowing time for the Spirit to move, but it has to be done a certain way, he says.

Let all things be done for building up.

“Building up” is only one word in the Greek, the word is “oikodomen” (οἰκοδομὴν), and it means construction or strengthening.

Again, we’ve seen this made clear throughout this series, one of the core purposes of the Spirit, how He accomplishes His task, is how he builds up the church in unity.

The same word, Paul uses in Romans 14:19

and again in Romans 15:2

but he also uses it in 1 Corinthians, back in chapter 3

If they are God’s building, well how is He building them?

With His Holy Spirit.

How does the Holy Spirit do this?

By energizing the people within the church, empowering them towards love and good works that unify the body, and grows the church.

Paul goes on...

When members speak in tongues, Paul gives instruction for how that should take place.

They’re not to speak all at once, but in turn.

The Greek word meros (μέρος) is used, meaning “in their part”, in fact that’s how it most often gets translated.

In fact, it’s only here that the word is translated “turn”.

The King James translates it “by course”, and the idea seems to be that if the message in tongues is taking place, that one person may be given a message, and there may even be a second message in tongues relating to the first, with one interpretation.

But we rarely ever see such a thing take place.

At the most, 3 people give a part, or take a turn, in the message of tongues, then let one interpret.

We know interpretation is a gift of the Spirit as well, listed in the gifts from chapter 12 (v.

10).

What this tells us, clearly, is that not everyone is able to interpret their own tongues.

Now, Paul did say

but that doesn’t mean everyone will always interpret their own messages.

It’s not necessarily wrong for the person to interpret their own message in tongues, but Paul is suggesting there should be time given for someone else to operate in their gift of interpretation.

Paul is also, in fact, stressing the diversity related to gift distribution here.

He’s distinguishing between members with the gift of tongues and those who have a gift of interpretation.

Similar to how the gift of discernment is distinguished from the gift of prophecy - which again, Paul made clear in his list in chapter 12, but he also does this in 1 Corinthians 12:30

Clearly they’re different gifts allotted to different individuals.

But Paul goes on with his instructions on the gift of tongues:

Does this mean that if someone who has a clear gift of interpretation, if they go on vacation or skip service, and you have the gift of tongues you should just be quiet that Sunday they’re gone?

No.

God may enable someone else to interpret, someone else may discover they have a gift for such a thing that didn’t use or utilize it before.

You may interpret your own message.

But if there is no interpretation at all, then we disregard it and don’t try again today.

Instead, just pray quietly and privately.

Perhaps such a person was meant to keep their prayer a private prayer, in their own private prayer language.