1 CORINTHIANS 12-16 A DISORDERED CHURCH2014 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Corinthians 12-16 A Disordered Church

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2014.

We are here this evening in 1 Corinthians. We'll be looking at chapters 12 through 16, finishing up the book of Corinthians and dealing really with a church that's in disorder. And Paul is setting some things straight regarding their services and their understanding of spiritual gifts and the resurrection and things like that. And so we'll have some real correction and some interesting insights that Paul gives throughout our chapters together.

The book of 1 Corinthians was written by the Apostle Paul around 57 AD. He was in Ephesus and he wrote to this church that was in Corinth for two reasons. He needed to address problems that were happening within the church.

He had heard about from some of the people that were visiting him from Corinth a lot of issues that were going on. There was sin in the church. There was divisions that were happening. There was chaos in their church services. And so he's addressing those problems. And then secondly, he's answering questions that they had asked. And so they had been writing to him and asking questions of Paul.

about doctrine and marriage and all of those types of things. And so he has been responding to them in those things that they had asked him about. So the timeline here, as Paul is writing this, he's in the midst of his third missionary journey.

In his second missionary journey, he spent about a year and a half in Corinth. And then a couple years later, he went back out and he has been in Ephesus now for a couple of years on his third missionary journey. And he hears about these things happening in Corinth. And so he sends them a letter. And then we're heading tomorrow into the book of 2 Corinthians. And we'll be continuing on talking to the Corinthians through the Apostle Paul. And

This will happen, you know, a little bit after this letter. And so there's some communication that is going back and forth between this church and the Apostle Paul and lots of insights for us. Pastor Raul Ruiz calls these two books, First and Second Californians instead of Corinthians. A lot of these things are definitely applicable and pertinent to the things that we face and go through.

Well, the geography of 1 Corinthians is pretty simple. Again, this is an overview of Paul's third missionary journey. He spent three years in Ephesus and it's there where he's at and he's writing this letter to Corinth. He's letting them know he's going to be heading their way. He's going to collect the money that they've been setting aside and then he's going to take it back to Jerusalem with him along with whoever else they send with him. And so we'll see that at the end of our chapters this evening.

Well, before we get started in chapter 12, we've been addressing the questions that the Corinthians had asked Paul.

And we dealt with a few of those last week in chapter 7. Should husbands and wives refrain from sex? Does that make you more spiritual? And Paul answered that question there. Should a believer divorce an unbeliever? Should single people get married? There was a lot of questions about marriage and how that works now as believers. And so Paul dealt with that in chapter 7. In chapters 8, 9, and 10...

He dealt with what we refer to as Christian liberties because they had concerns about eating meat that had previously been sacrificed to idols. But now as we go into chapters 12, 13, and 14...

He's answering another question and dealing with a problem that was happening about the proper use of spiritual gifts. They were operating in the spiritual gifts. There was a lot of spiritual gift activity, but they weren't exactly sure about, they weren't educated in the use of those, the proper use of those spiritual gifts. And so Paul is going to be addressing that in these next few chapters.

So we get started this evening in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 12 is the key verse. It says, "...for as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ."

Here, Paul the Apostle in chapter 12 is going to be talking about spiritual gifts. And I think it's interesting that whenever there is discussion about spiritual gifts in the Bible, it is pretty much always related to this idea, this concept of the body of Christ. And it goes

emphasizes the unity amongst many members. That we, like a body, are, you know, well your body has many different members or many different parts. And each part has different functions and can do different things. And yet your body, the members, are all attached together. And so you form one person. In the same way, as believers, we are the body of Christ. Right?

And there are many members and we have different functions and different abilities and different things that we are enabled by God to do. And yet he has designed us to attach together, to be united, to work together, to accomplish the work of God, to the glory of God. And so as we look at this chapter, that's kind of the thrust is this emphasis on unity, that we are one body.

But he starts out in verses 1 through 6 and he says, do not be ignorant concerning spiritual gifts. Now Paul has been addressing different questions and different issues that have been raised. And so now he begins to talk about, in verse 1 he says, now concerning spiritual gifts. And he says there in verse 1, he says, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant concerning

I don't want you to be lacking in understanding or lacking in knowledge about spiritual gifts. Now it's interesting that Paul says that because what we do find in Scripture

Many churches and in the church as a whole worldwide, we find a lot of ignorance about spiritual gifts. And I would encourage you if you're reading this and you're thinking, you know, I don't really understand spiritual gifts that much or that well. I think maybe there is some ignorance in me about spiritual gifts.

I want to encourage you and let you know here, Paul says, I don't want you to be ignorant. Listen, God wants you to know about spiritual gifts. It's not some like mysterious, strange thing that only excellent Christians can understand. This is something that God wants believers to understand. And there's plenty of opportunity and resources for you to dig in and have a better understanding of spiritual gifts today.

And if you don't understand spiritual gifts, I would encourage you to do that. And if you need some direction and help, I'd be glad to help. You come talk to me after service. You can check out Pastor Chuck Smith's book, Living Water, where he goes into depth, you know, about the Holy Spirit and his work in our lives. And that would be a good starting place for you.

But as we talk about spiritual gifts, we need to find the balance between two extremes that often happen within the church. One side of the scale says, you know, there are no spiritual gifts any longer. Those were for a time, they were for a period, but those are done. God does not give us spiritual gifts any longer. That's one group or one side of the spectrum says that. That's an extreme and that's not what the Bible teaches.

But then we go to the other side and then at the other end of the spectrum, everything is all about the gifts. And there's chaos and disorder because there's this misuse and overuse and sometimes made up spiritual gifts. And so there's these two extremes and

We need to find the balance. And that's why we want to really stick to the Word of God and what the Bible says about these because that will bring us back into balance with what is the reality regarding spiritual gifts.

Here in verses 4 through 6, the Apostle Paul really gives us an overview of spiritual gifts. And so I'm going to hit the rest of chapter 12 and then we'll come back to this and spend a little time kind of trying to get a glimpse and a grasp of what these spiritual gifts are all about. Then going on now though in verses 7 through 11, we see that the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the profit of all.

One of the ways that these spiritual gifts are referred to is the manifestation or the revelation of the Holy Spirit. So in other words, the evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in you, Paul says, is given for the profit of all. The Holy Spirit will work in these special ways so that everybody can benefit. And again, we'll come back to this in just a moment. Then in verses 12 through 18,

Paul says the body is one and has many members. And so here's where he gives us this illustration of a body. And I would encourage you to explore this in your mind.

As you think about your body, there is a lot of parallels to how the church is to function. And you can think of it as a large-scale thing as far as the church worldwide, Christians all around the world. We are the body of Christ. But also the way that Paul talks about this, we understand that

Each church, the local church, is also represented as the body of Christ. And so we here at Calvary Chapel Living Water, we are the body of Christ. And we can relate to our body and this body and think about those things and understand the way that God wants us to function and operate. And we are...

together. We are called to be united with one another and yet there is many members. There's lots of different groups

There's lots of different talents and functions. There's lots of different preferences. And we all come from different backgrounds and we're gifted in different ways. And yet we come together to make one body. To be established together as the body of Christ and to be his agent to work in the world around us. And so there's this unity with great diversity.

And sometimes we think that those things are opposites. But they're not. In fact, unity is beautiful because of the great diversity. And God brings us together and unites us together in a way that's beautiful. That we form the body of Christ. In verse 18, it tells us that God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.

And so you are a member of the body of Christ and you are placed in His body with the function that He chooses according to His pleasure. And sometimes we...

Wish we had somebody else's place in the body. But God chooses your place. You don't choose it. Nobody else chooses it for you. It's God who chooses it. And he places us. And so this is why we often refer to, you know, if this is your home church. We talk about the home church. If this is the body where God has you attached...

then you have a part. You have a role and God set you here as he pleased and you have a function to perform. You have a part to play in his body where he has attached you because he sets us where he pleases. He attaches us to other believers where we're needed and where we need those who are around us.

Well, he goes on in verses 19 through 27 to say that all members are necessary. So continuing to explore this idea of being members of the body of Christ, he now says, listen, every one of us is necessary. There are not unimportant parts of the body.

There are not unnecessary parts of the body. And sometimes members of the body think less of themselves. They think, well, I'm just a foot and the hand is much better. So, you know, I'm really not an important part of the body.

Or the hand is proud and thinks, you know, I'm a hand and there's some great things that I could do and, you know, those feet, they're not that great. And so I'm much better and much more important in the body than those feet are. But Paul explains here in verse 22, he says, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And so Paul wants to make sure we understand.

Every member is necessary. There's no optional members. There's no optional parts to the body of Christ. Every member, even the ones that we think are weaker, and that's either you looking on it, you know, another member and saying, hmm, I think they're weaker, or you're thinking, yeah, I think I'm weaker. Either way, Paul says no.

They are necessary. There's no unnecessary members of the body. He goes on in verse 24 to say that God composed the body having given greater honor to the part which lacks it. So God has designed this in a genius way like only God can.

He's designed the body of Christ so that the parts which seem weaker or to lack honor, you think, well, that's not really a really big role in the body of Christ. God has designed his body so that those roles, you think about those members, those functions, and you think, ah, that's not that important. God says they have greater honor. They have greater reward. They have greater things.

Because he's designed it that way. So that every role is important. Every role is necessary. Every role is honorable. Every role has great reward. And so you might think, well, children's ministry or nursery, you know, that's not that important. It's not, you know, something I want to be involved with or...

Flashlight fellowships, you know, that's not really my thing. Not really wanting to be a part of that. I'm not good enough to be a part of that. Cleaning the toilets, you know, we'll save that for Jake and Javier and Richard and let those guys do it because they're lesser and hardly worth anything. No, no, there's no members that are unnecessary, that are less honorable members.

Every role, every member, every part is absolutely crucial. Warren Wiersbe says it this way, the believers you think you can do without may be the ones you need the most. That might get under your skin a little bit because some believers you think, yeah, I could do without them. It'd be really nice if they weren't there today.

But Warren Wiersbe says, you know what? God has attached you to the body. It's his design. And those ones that you think, ah, I could do without them. Those ones might be the ones that you need the most. We're a team. That's another illustration if you want to consider that. Every member on this team is essential.

We need each other. God has designed us that way to be interdependent upon one another. He says in verse 27, you are the body of Christ and members individually. He says to the church of Corinth, this local church, you are the body of Christ. He says to Calvary Chapel Living Water, you are the body of Christ and members. You are a member. Individually, you are a member of the body of Christ.

Which means God has designed a place for you. He's designed a role for you. He has an important part for you to play in his kingdom. And so with that, Paul goes on in verses 28 through 31 to instruct us to earnestly desire the best gifts. Since you are a crucial part, since you have a valuable role to play, since you have an honorable position,

Desire spiritual gifts. Desire the best spiritual gifts that you would be able to fulfill your role to edify the body of Christ. And so let's talk a little bit about those spiritual gifts. First of all, I want to consider verses 4, 5, and 6 and share with you these are an overview of spiritual gifts. Here, Paul kind of gives us an outline.

A lot of times when we deal with spiritual gifts, they get kind of all lumped into one big pile. And so you'll hear things like, you know, there are 19 gifts of the Holy Spirit or 21 gifts of the Holy Spirit because nobody can agree on the right number of spiritual gifts. I think putting all these into one big pile is a bad way to approach understanding spiritual gifts. And I think it leads to some misunderstandings.

There are different types of spiritual gifts. And here Paul kind of breaks these out for us. As he refers to these spiritual gifts, he refers to different members of the triune God. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. In verse 4 he mentions the Holy Spirit. He says, "...there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit."

Then in verse 5, he talks about Jesus. He says, there are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And then in verse 6, he talks about the Father. He says, and there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. And so as he refers to the different members of the triune God, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit,

He helps us to understand. And I think we can break up spiritual gifts into three groups based on these three members of the Godhead. So first of all, the Holy Spirit in verse 4. The Holy Spirit gives you what I refer to, you probably know as, spiritual gifts. It says in verse 4, there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. Now,

For a list of these gifts that the Holy Spirit gives, you can look at 1 Corinthians 12, verses 7-11. We'll look at those in just a moment. They're also known as manifestations of the Spirit. And so these spiritual gifts, these manifestations are given by the Holy Spirit. And something very important to understand about these is that these are available to every believer at any time.

That is, the Holy Spirit can manifest Himself in any believer at any time in any of these ways. It's not a permanent position. It's not a permanent role. It's moment by moment, the Holy Spirit gives these spiritual gifts according to His will and according to the need that is there.

Well, then we see in verse 5, as he talks about Jesus, Jesus gives you leadership. It's a different kind of spiritual gift. He gives you leadership. He says there are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.

This idea of ministries, he's talking about leadership positions or leadership roles. And you can see a list of these leadership positions in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11 through 16, but specifically verse 11. There are those leadership positions that he mentions are that of apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers.

And so there's pastors, there's evangelists, there's prophets, there's apostles. These are positions of leadership that God has established, that Jesus has established for his church, for his body, to lead, to protect, to guide, to do his work. And so Jesus gives you leadership.

And sometimes we are not really excited about that, depending on the leaders that God has placed there. But that is a gift. It's a gift from Jesus. Well then, the last one, we see the Father. The Father gives you a role in the body of Christ. He says in verse 6, There are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. And so the Father gives you a role or an activity.

And these are listed for us in Romans chapter 12 verses 4 through 8. And so these activities or these roles are the things that we do. These are more not permanent but they're longer lasting. So God calls you to serve in a certain capacity. He gives you a specific function. And so you serve in a certain way within the body. And

And usually it's in seasons. For a season, you know, he has you serving in this capacity and then he usually calls us to grow and so we'll serve in another capacity and then a different capacity as we continue to grow and walk with the Lord. But there's seasons and they can last months or years depending on what God is doing in our lives.

But he gives us a role. He gives us membership in the body of Christ. He places us where we need to be, where the body needs us to be, and where we need to be in relation to other members of the body of Christ. And so this is more permanent. It may change from season to season. Now, the key is your role in the body of Christ is then enhanced by going back to verse 4, the spiritual gifts.

So the Holy Spirit gives you spiritual gifts to help you fulfill your role in the body of Christ. So you have this role, you have this function, you have this activity, and then the Holy Spirit gives you the spiritual gifts that you need as you do that work and as you fulfill that role in the body of Christ. Now, this is a lot of information really fast. You know, this is meant to be an overview. We don't have time to get into all the details, but...

In a couple months, we are going to go through on Sunday mornings a new course that we're working on called Equipped to Serve.

And in that, we're going to go through in great detail these different aspects, these different things. The gifts of the Holy Spirit, the leaders that Jesus gives you, and your role in the body of Christ. And we'll spend some time examining those in more detail. And so you can look forward to that. But at the same time, we want to consider what's here in chapter 12 for us, the things that we've been reading this week.

And so here what's listed is the manifestations of the Spirit in verses 7 through 11. And as we look at these briefly, again, I want to remind you, these are gifts of the Holy Spirit. So number one, a gift is not earned, it's not deserved. And so these are not spiritual gifts for super spiritual people that have, you know, met some criteria. These gifts are

can be given by the Holy Spirit to any believer. And so you are a candidate for the Holy Spirit to manifest Himself in these ways. At any time, He can do that. It's available to every believer. Now, it's not according to our will. So it's not that we get to call out, alright, give me this gift. And then we have it. We can desire it, Paul says. We can ask God for it. But the Holy Spirit gives these gifts according to His will.

And then the second thing I want to remind you of is that these are not permanent gifts. And so sometimes, you know, I think, well, I must be a prophet because God used me one time to prophesy. Well, that's not the way that these gifts work. The Holy Spirit might give you the gift of prophecy. He might manifest himself and use you to prophesy. But then later on, he's going to manifest himself in a different way. And so it's not a permanent position, but it's

as needed, you know, moment by moment, case by case. He gives you what you need to help you fulfill your role. And so one of these manifestations is the word of wisdom. And this we understand to be when the Holy Spirit gives you the solution to a dilemma or problem, when he gives you guidance or direction. So it's the idea of how to do something, what to do. The Holy Spirit sometimes will give you some wisdom.

And he will give you wisdom in a corporate setting perhaps and have you share it. Or maybe personal one-on-one as you're having a discussion with somebody. He'll give you a word of wisdom to minister to somebody and to point them in the direction where God wants them to go. Or yourself perhaps. You're praying for your family and you need direction. You need wisdom. You can seek the Lord for a word of wisdom and it's something that the Holy Spirit can give to you. Or a word of knowledge.

Word of knowledge is similar. The Holy Spirit gives you information that you could not know naturally. So he gives you insight. He gives you behind the scenes info to help you understand what's going on or what needs to be known. And it might be information that you need to act upon or it might just be information that you need to pray over or to pray for somebody because he shows you what's happening in their life. Something along those lines. He could manifest himself and give you the gift of faith.

And this is when the Holy Spirit gives you faith to say or do something special and specific. And so this gift often goes along with the next ones, the gifts of healing and the working of miracles. He'll give you faith, you know, along with the instruction to lay hands on somebody and heal them or pray for them that they would recover or, you know, provide for somebody in some miraculous way. And so these things often go together.

Gifts of healing, of course, is the idea of God giving you a supernatural ability to heal a person. And this is something that is available to every believer. I know how we think. We think that's reserved for, you know, the pastors, the special people, the really holy ones. You know, God can use them to heal people. He could never use me to heal people. But that's not

What a spiritual gift is. A spiritual gift is a gift by the Holy Spirit that He can give to any believer. And so, as the Lord prompts your heart, pray for healing. And if God wants to do it, He will do it. Working of miracles in the same way, it's the Holy Spirit working in a supernatural way to do something contrary to natural laws.

God works miracles. And he doesn't only do it for those who are super righteous or those who read their Bible today. He does it for his believers as we call out to him. And so...

This is a gift that the Holy Spirit can give you, the working of miracles. Maybe it's provision that God wants to do. Maybe it's a specific work that He wants to accomplish or a freeway that He wants to clear up so that you get to work on time. God can do all kinds of miracles in all kinds of ways and sometimes He will manifest Himself in you that way.

The gift of prophecy is when the Holy Spirit gives you a message that edifies, exhorts, and comforts. Now, we mentioned the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. These become prophecy when you speak them out. You're speaking forth instruction, a word from God. And so it's a thing that God uses to build up his people.

And this can come in the form of, you know, a special, you know, phrase or something that God gives to you. It could come in the form of a scripture that God, you know, emphasizes or places upon your heart to share with somebody or a group of people. It can come in many ways, but it's God speaking a message that brings comfort, edification, or exhortation to people.

The discerning of spirits is another gift, and that's when the Holy Spirit gives you knowledge of what is behind an activity or behavior. As we'll talk about in chapter 14, one of the ways that the Holy Spirit operates within a body as we're having a service together is He will give a gift of prophecy, and then He says, let the other people judge. And so in that, we are to be praying for the discerning of spirits to say,

Well, that thing that he or she just shared is from the Lord or is not from the Lord. There needs to be discernment to understand, to judge. Is this really from God? Or maybe there's a situation going on. There's someone who comes in at your home or at your work or wherever and maybe God needs to give you discernment. Is discernment

that person operating in the power of the Holy Spirit or is there some other spirit at work? And so the discerning of spirits is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit that he gives you insight into what's happening behind the scenes, the spiritual forces that are at work. And then different kinds of tongues is another gift. And here is where the Holy Spirit gives you the ability to pray in a language that you do not know.

This is probably familiar to you. You know, if you've heard anything about spiritual gifts, this is one that's usually focused on. But it's the speaking forth in a language that you haven't studied, you haven't learned, but God supernaturally enables you to speak. The majority of the time, it's not a language that

Other people around you know it's often a heavenly language or something that, you know, we don't understand. There have been stories and cases, you know, where God enables somebody to speak in, you know, a language. Let's say missionaries are on the mission field and God enables them to speak in

in the natives languages even though the missionaries never studied them and so there are those things that happen as well but primarily this is a prayer or prayer language we often refer to it as and then there's the interpretation of tongues and this is when the Holy Spirit gives you understanding of a prayer that is expressed in an unknown language and

And so this is used for a person in their personal life if they pray in tongues and then sometimes God will also enable them to interpret and to understand what they just prayed.

Sometimes it's used within a church service where we allow the operation of the gifts of the Spirit and someone will pray a prayer in an unknown tongue and then God will give somebody else the interpretation and they will express that interpretation and the prayer that was uttered. And so these are supernatural gifts. These are manifestations of the Holy Spirit and

These are pretty radical, you know, for most of us, we kind of consider these things. And yet, what I want to remind you of is that these are available to every believer. That God can manifest himself in you in any of these ways. And some of these things he'll do pretty regularly and repeatedly. Some he'll maybe do once in your lifetime and maybe that's it. But

any of these God can do in us as we operate in the role that he's called us to in the body of Christ. All right, moving on now. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 13 is the key verse. It says, "...and now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love."

Now, as Paul is dealing with spiritual gifts, he goes on in verses 1 through 3 here to say, great gifts or acts do not profit without love. So as he's talking about spiritual gifts, and we might think, wow, these are wonderful. These are amazing. It's so radical.

Paul wants to bring us back and remind us, look, even if you have the greatest gifts, even if you have the most generosity, even if you can say amazing, wonderful things, if you don't have love, it really doesn't profit. And so, although these gifts are available and God works in these ways, and it is amazing and mind-blowing every time,

He wants us to remember the core issue is love. That's what we need to be focused on. That's where we need to camp. In verses 4 through 8, he describes love for us. This is the way that God loves you. And this is the way he wants to enable you to love others around you as well. That is others in your household and specifically other members around you in the body of Christ.

Let me just read through this description of love. In verse 4 he says, Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. Is not puffed up. Does not behave rudely. Does not seek its own. Is not provoked. Thinks no evil. Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.

bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. This is the description of love that God has for you. This is the way that He relates to you. He suffers for a long time and is still kind to you. He loves you. And also this is the way that He wants us to love one another. And there's always lots of room for growth here. This is

An area that we all fall short in. And so I would encourage you to meditate on these things and ask God to increase your love for the people around you. In verses 9 through 13, Paul says that love is greater than faith and hope. So you talk about spiritual gifts, you talk about faith, you talk about hope. Paul says this is where you need to focus. Love is the most important thing. This is the greatest thing.

in the life of the Christian. And so it's what we need to be seeking God for. Well now as we go on into chapter 14, here Paul goes back to addressing some concerns for the church of Corinth and their services. So in chapter 14, he's dealing again with spiritual gifts.

But he's dealing specifically with how those spiritual gifts are used within a gathering together of believers. And so now in chapter 14, verse 12 is the key verse. It says, "...even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel."

And so here he's talking about the use of these gifts in a gathering together. And so as the church is gathered together, he says, seek to edify or to build up

The church. Now from time to time on Wednesdays we will have a time, an opportunity for us to seek the Lord and allow him to work in this way and using spiritual gifts. Pretty much every week on Sunday evenings we also have an opportunity and a time to

for the operation and use of spiritual gifts. And for those types of services, Paul is saying, here's the order. He's correcting some of their disorder and helping us establish order for how things should go. So in verses 1 through 12, he says, seek to excel in edification. Because the primary thing is love, then out of your love for the people around you, desire earnestly to build them up.

What was happening at the church of Corinth was just chaos and it wasn't building anybody up. It wasn't helping the church grow. It wasn't helping the people grow. It was reducing the edification. It was reducing the benefits because it was not being done in order. Paul explains in verse 4 that he who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.

In a gathering together of believers, the manifestation of the Spirit is primarily done in these two ways. Prophecy or speaking in tongues. Now, the speaking in tongues, Paul says, that's primarily for self-edification. It's primarily between you and God. It's for your benefit, for your spirit. It's a work that God does in you personally. Prophecy, on the other hand, is primarily for building others up.

Because God is speaking through you to the people around you. But speaking in tongues is a prayer. It's a prayer to God. And so it's between you and God. And so Paul says, since you're zealous for spiritual gifts...

And the way that he refers to these things, you know, in this chapter, we get the impression that, you know, there's chaos. You know, people over here are speaking in tongues and there's someone over here prophesying and another person over there doing something else and someone over there doing something else and there's all this disorder happening. And so there's not the benefit. There's not the edification of the body. And so he's saying within a church service, here's how it needs to be.

Now back in 2011, we did a series. It was a three-part series called the Bodybuilding Series that looked in depth at 1 Corinthians chapter 14. And it's available online on our website if you want to check it out. But you'll get more detail there about the operation of prophecy and tongues in a gathering together of believers in the way that Paul outlines here in chapter 14. Well, verses 13 through 25, he says, "...let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret."

So in a gathering of believers, whenever there is going to be an utterance in an unknown tongue by a gift of the Spirit, then he says, you need to be praying that you would interpret that. Otherwise, it's not edifying to the people because they don't understand what you're saying. They can't participate in that prayer towards God. And so there needs to be interpretation.

And if you're going to be sharing in the tongue, then you need to pray for the interpretation. Now, sometimes God will have you share and then he'll bring the interpretation through somebody else. But Paul says, you need to pray that you can interpret so that if somebody else doesn't interpret, then you're able to share that prayer and the church will be edified. He says in verse 19, in the church, I would rather speak five words with my understanding that I may teach others than 10,000 words in a tongue.

And so again, from what he's sharing, we get the impression there was a lot of speaking in tongues in the gatherings, but not much understanding, not interpretation. And so the people weren't being built up. They weren't being edified because it was just a lot of noise that was happening. And so verses 26 through 33, he says, "...let all things be for edification."

And here he gives specific instructions about order in the service. And so in verse 27 and 28, he says, okay, regarding speaking in tongues, here's the deal. Let two or three speak at the most.

And whenever someone speaks in a tongue, someone needs to interpret. And so these are the guidelines that he presents. That's the way, that's the order. Two or three at the most, someone interprets. And that is the way that this gift is to operate in the gathering of believers. Then the gift of prophecy he deals with in verses 29 through 32. And here he says, let two or three speak again.

But when a word of prophecy comes forth, he says, let the others judge. So don't just receive it as if, well, that must be from God because they said it in an afterglow. No, judge.

Check it out. Does it match? Does it line up with the word of God? Pray for the discerning of spirits. Is that from the Lord? Let the others judge, he says. And then finally he says, one at a time. And so it's not to happen all simultaneously, but one person at a time. Take your turn. He says, the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. So you can wait. God's given you a word. It's burning in your heart, but you can wait.

And then when the other person is finished, then you can have your opportunity to share the thing that God has placed upon your heart. He says in verse 33, For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. And so that's the overarching principle. God is not the author of confusion. He's the author of order. And so as we gather together and we want to see God work and operate in the gifts of the Spirit,

God will do it in an orderly fashion. Well then in verses 34 through 38, Paul says, let women learn from their husbands at home. And this upsets a lot of people. Verse 34, let your women keep silent in the churches for they are not permitted to speak, but they are to be submissive as the law also says. Now, to unruffle feathers, let's just consider the context here. Paul is talking about order within the service.

He is not saying, and you can't just take this verse out of context and just, you know, try to parse every word that he says. Paul is not talking about total silence. He's not saying, be quiet to all the ladies. He's talking about what's happening within the service. And he's dealing with specific things that are happening there in the church at Corinth. And so there's really two issues here at play. One of these issues is submission.

We dealt with this a little bit last week in chapter 11 as we talked about the head coverings. And the head coverings had little to do with the type of clothing, but it had a lot to do with the submission that it represented and being submitted to their husbands and ladies taking off their veil and exposing themselves and making themselves available to everybody. It was disrespectful to their husbands in their culture.

And so it'd be like a lady, you know, who dresses inappropriately and her husband doesn't like it and asks her not to, but she does it anyways. It's disrespectful to her husband. It's not being in submission. And so there is this issue of submission. And so he says they are to be submissive as the law also says. So there is the need for order to happen within the family. The husband is the head of the home and that's part of what Paul is addressing here.

The other part of what Paul is addressing here is disruption. Disruption was happening because, well, we get the understanding or the impression from some of the early writings that they would conduct church in the way that they did in the synagogue. And that is men would be on one side. Can you imagine? All the guys sit on this side. All the girls sit on this side.

And so if a wife wants to ask her husband a question, she can't just nudge and whisper like all you guys do. They have to yell at each other, you know, across the aisle. What did he say? What does that mean? I don't understand. Why do you think he wants to do that? Or, you know, whatever. Couldn't elbow each other and be like, he's talking to you, honey. He's talking to you. Are you getting this? Write it down, you know. And it was a disruption. It would interrupt the

the service and what God was doing. And so he says in verse 35, if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for women to speak in the church. And again, feathers get all ruffled, right? But just, okay, let's just take a breath, relax yourself. Okay, listen to what Paul is saying. Understanding their culture, understanding where they're coming from,

Women were not well educated in their culture. Now this isn't a slight against women. It's just Paul was dealing with the situation that was there. And so just as you and I as new believers or new at anything, we have lots of questions.

The ladies had lots of questions. They weren't as familiar with the scriptures. They weren't as familiar with certain things just because that was the way their culture was and they didn't educate them in those things. Now, God doesn't say that. That's not by God's design. It's just that's the condition that they were in.

And so there would be these questions. The ladies would want to know. They'd be asking their husbands, but it was disrupting the service. Now, to try to put this in 2014 language, Paul's saying, look, if you need to talk on the phone, go outside and talk on the phone. Don't try to talk on the phone here in service because that's disrupting. At the pastor's conference, you wouldn't expect that to happen, right? But one row in front of me, there's a guy in worship talking.

Yeah, go over to the dresser. It's on the right-hand side. No, no, no, not that one, not one. Go under that, and we're all looking at each other like, are you serious? I mean, this is a pastor's conference. Go outside if you need to talk on the phone. That's disruptive to what God is doing. In the same way, the things that were happening there. So this is not...

Again, a slight against women. It's not that there is some kind of issue that God has with women or Paul has with women. It's not about absolute silence. In fact, he is talking in chapter 11 about women prophesying in the church and when there is the operation of the gifts of the Spirit, there is opportunity for ladies to participate just as much as the men. There is no restrictions on that. But the issue was their situation was

was causing these kinds of disruptions. And Paul says, so put things in order. Put a stop to that. Tell people, you know, put it on the screen, silence your cell phone. It's that kind of instruction that he's giving. And so we need to keep it in that context. Well, finally, verses 39 through 40, he says, desire to prophesy and do not forbid to speak with tongues. Desire to prophesy, that's the priority because that's when people are edified.

But don't go too far and then forbid. Well, you shouldn't speak in tongues. You can't speak in tongues. Nobody speak in tongues. Okay? We're going to pray. We're going to allow the Spirit to work. But nobody speak in tongues. No, no. Don't do that. Don't go too far. Allow it. Keep it in the parameters. But when you're desiring, desire especially that you would prophesy and edify the body of Christ in that way.

Well, the final concern that Paul had for the church of Corinth was their understanding of the resurrection. There was a lot of false teaching that was going on and that's what Paul addresses now in chapter 15. Verse 51 is the key verse. He says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In verses 1 through 11, Paul gives us the gospel. Christ died for our sins. He was buried and he rose again.

And he focuses then on the rising again to talk about that aspect in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which then guarantees the resurrection of his followers of you and I. And so he talks about here the eyewitness testimony of the resurrection of Jesus, how he appeared to Peter, the rest of the apostles, 500 of the brethren at one time, he appeared to James, and then he says, lastly, he appeared to me.

And so Jesus resurrected. It's known. It's fact. We have many eyewitness testimonies. Then in verses 12 through 19, Paul says, So there are some teaching that there isn't a resurrection. That resurrection

This life is what you got. It's it. It's whatever you experience in this life, that's your life. There's nothing beyond this. And Paul says, how can some of you be teaching that there is no resurrection if, well, the gospel is that Christ resurrected from the dead. In verse 12, he says, if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do you say there is no resurrection of the dead? Paul's saying, you guys are teaching this, but it doesn't line up with the gospel.

And that's a key issue with doctrine. Doctrine needs to be consistent across the whole counsel of God's Word. It needs to factor in all that God has said and it needs to line up with that. And a lot of times people run off on these side tangent things and they overemphasize certain parts so that, well, then it's contradicting, you know, the rest of the Word of God.

He says in verse 17, if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Resurrection is essential to the gospel message. It's not an optional part. It's not like, well, you can believe that if you want to, but you really don't have to. No, if Christ is not risen, if he didn't resurrect from the dead, your faith is meaningless. It's useless. It had no point. There's no salvation if Jesus did not resurrect.

Then in verse 19, he says, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. So he talks about the resurrection of Jesus. He's saying that guarantees our resurrection. And he says, if that's not the case, then we are most pitiable above all men. That it's not worth it to be a Christian if we only have hope in Christ in this life. Now this verse really caught my attention this week.

I would encourage you to kind of meditate on this verse because, you know, we often speak to people about the benefits of walking with Jesus. And there are amazing benefits. But I think many times that we focus too much on this life. God's primary plan for you is for eternity, not this life. That is, this life is not the objective. His plan for you involves this life to give you the greatest eternity that you could have.

Not to give you the greatest life here on earth that you can have. You know, sometimes we'll approach people and we'll say, hey, God loves you and he has a plan for your life. And as we share about Jesus from that, many times it's like God's plan for you is that you would have the American dream. You know, you would have the spouse, the kids, the house, all the blessings, new cars. I mean, God has these great things in store for you.

And that may be, God may do that in your life. But that's not a guarantee. That's not the gospel. The gospel is about the resurrection. It's about eternity. God's plan for your life may involve rejection, torture, hunger, heartache. You're like, well, that's not really, you know, God has a plan for your life. He wants you to be tortured. Right. That's why we need to focus not so much on this life, but on eternity.

Because there's great reward for what we do for the Lord here. And those he calls to that. I mean, we live in a Christian bubble here in America. It's starting to fall apart. But around the world, things are very different. There's great persecution. You turn to Jesus Christ at the risk of your life. And it helps people keep the right perspective on eternity. But we often get too consumed with this life. And Paul says, look, being a Christian is not just like so you can live a good life and, you know,

That's what it's all about. No. Being a Christian may cost you your life, but it's worth it because of what God has in store for eternity. You know, someone sharing with you about their marriage issues and you're thinking and you're sharing, hey, Jesus can fix your marriage. And listen, he can. But also, following Jesus may result in divorce.

He can fix your marriage if you and your spouse are both willing to be submitted to him and walk with him. But if you submit to Jesus and walk with Jesus and your spouse doesn't, well, we dealt with that back in chapter 7. If an unbelieving spouse wants to depart, let him depart. No, no, no. God wants you to have a good marriage. Yes, he does. But if an unbeliever departs, let him depart. Because, well, the gospel is about eternity.

It's about salvation from hell. It's about forgiveness of sin. It's about the amazing things that God has in store for us. And this life is part of that in that, well, he's working in us what needs to be accomplished so that we can have the best eternity possible. God's primary plan for you is for eternity. That's what he's most concerned about.

Well then in verses 20 through 34, he tells us that resurrection came by Christ. We saw in the book of Romans that we inherited sin and death from Adam. But now we inherit resurrection and life from Jesus Christ. He reversed the curse for those who believe in him. And so his resurrection guarantees our resurrection.

Verses 35 through 49, he says, this natural body is raised a spiritual body. He's answering a question that he anticipates here in verse 35. He says, someone will say, how are the dead raised up and with what body do they come?

And you might hear this from time to time. People are saying, come on, resurrection? I mean, what if you got burned? How's he going to resurrect your body from all of those ashes? Or what if you're cast into the sea and now your bones are over here and over there and over there and over there and this fish ate you and then that fish ate that fish? How's God going to do that? And Paul's saying, look, this natural body is like a seed. And when you sow a seed, well, what it produces...

It's nothing like what was sown. In the same way, our natural body, this is what is sown, but what it produces in resurrection is something completely different. It's related. An apple seed always produces apple trees, but this natural body produces a spiritual body, where it's resurrected as a spiritual body. And so it's not the same thing.

body being put back together warren weirsby says it this way keep in mind that resurrection is not reconstruction god does not reassemble the original body he gives us a new body and so it's a resurrection this body is raised a spiritual body well then in verses 50 through 58 he says that we shall all be changed and here he talks about the rapture of the church

He says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. God's primary plan for us is eternity, but you can't inherit eternity with that body. And you wouldn't want to inherit eternity with that body. So what happens to those who haven't died when Christ returns? Well, that's what's called the rapture, where those who are alive and remain will be caught up to meet the Lord.

And so those who are alive when Jesus returns, Paul says in verse 51, I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep. That is, we're not all going to die, but we shall all be changed. So what Paul is saying is, whether you die or not, when Jesus returns, your natural body will have sown life.

or been sown, and this resurrected body will be the result. And so you will get a new body when you are caught up to meet the Lord, or when you die, your body is sown, and you are given your resurrected body at this time as well. So when Christ returns, we all get glorified, resurrected spiritual bodies, whether we died first, or whether we're still alive at the return of Jesus.

Since we will be in eternity with Jesus, since we will have these new bodies, Paul goes on to say, keep doing his work. Verse 58, therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, be immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Since God's primary plan for you is eternity, since you will have this promise of eternity, this great reward, this spiritual body, he says, keep on being faithful to work for God because you know it's not in vain. He's going to reward you and he's going to do great things. Well, the final chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 16, the key verse is verse 24. He says, my love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.

In verses 1 through 4, he talks about the collection for the saints. There was a need in Jerusalem. Those who were poor, there was famine going on. And so the churches in the area were gathering together money. And Paul was saying, all right, I'm going to be coming by there soon. So have it set aside. Collect the money on the first day of the week on Sunday when you meet. Have some money put aside as God blesses you.

So that when I come, then there's no collections. It's not like some, you know, a thing where everybody feels pressured. You know, here's Paul with the offering bag. Okay, cough it up. You know, but just give it. So that it's ready. And when I come, I'll just collect it. I'll take whoever you send with me and we'll go to Jerusalem and deliver it to those who are in need.

He says in verses 5 through 12, I will come to you when I pass through Macedonia. Again, he's in Ephesus. He's saying, I'm going to be headed over that way and then I'll go on to Jerusalem.

In verses 13 through 18, he says, stand fast in the faith. He says, watch, stand fast, be brave, be strong, let all that you do be done with love. A good final exhortation. Watch, stand, be brave, be strong, and operate in love. Love one another and do what God has called you to do.

Then finally he says in verses 19 through 24, the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all. And so he concludes the letter, although he had some concerns, some corrections, although he answered lots of questions because there was all kinds of disorder and chaos, he concludes with this exhortation, keep going forward and may God's grace be with you. May God's grace cover you. And so that's the way that we need to go forward as well. Keep going forward. Yes, you got problems. Yes, you got questions. Yes, there's things out of order.

But keep on going. Watch and stand fast. Keep on operating in love. And God's grace will be with you. He loves you and he's taking care of you. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, but also to us. So applicable, Lord, to the things that we face. Help us, God, to hear from you.

to walk with you, Lord, to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And I pray for each one here, Lord, that you would empower us with your Holy Spirit, that you would show us the role that you've given to us in your body, in your church. And Lord, that you would gift us all that we need, that you would work supernaturally in our lives to help us.

fulfill the role that you've given to us to help us witness to the world around us, to help us represent you well. And so, Lord, work through us, not because we've earned it or deserved it, but by your grace. Help us, Lord, to be steadfast and immovable and abounding in your work. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.