1 Corinthians 14:26-40 - Pastor Brett Landry | March 29, 2026

Sermon Outline

1. 0:00 1. Scripture Reading — 1 Corinthians 14:26-40 read aloud
   TRANSCRIPT: 1 Corinthians 14:26-40 - Pastor Brett Landry | March 29, 2026 ================================================================================ If you're able, would you please stand with me for the reading of God's word? >> Our passage this morning comes from First Corinthians chapter 14 verses 26 to 40. When 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 you if any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three and each in turn and let everyone 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 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 Lord 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 Lord 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 all 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. Please be seated. Thank you. Let me pray for us. Father, we thank you that when we gather together, we know you're with us. We know that we're gathered together in the name of your son, Jesus, and in the power and presence of your spirit. And so, we ask you that you would help us to see your nature and character here in this text, and that you'd help us to then apply that in the way that we live our lives, God. That you'd be glorified in everything that we do.
2. 2:13 2. Opening Prayer
   do. This is our prayer, Lord. Help us to see it come to fruition in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. So, what are we looking at here today? That verse that you went, "Yeah, we'll get there. Don't worry about it. We'll get there. Just take a deep breath. It's going to be great. We'll get there. We have some work to do before we get there, but but we will eventually get there. Here's how I want to look at the text today. I want to talk about the disorder of status seeking. I want
3. 2:41 3. Sermon Roadmap — Three headings: (1) The Disorder of Status Seeking, (2) The God of Peace, (3) The Security of the Gospel
   want to talk about the peace or the God of peace and the security of the gospel. the disorder of status seeking the God of peace and the security of the gospel. Those are the headings that we're going to be looking at this in today. Look at the text again. Just verse 26 with me. What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. He says, "Let all things be done for building up." And that's echoing back to what he said earlier in chapter 14. If you were here a number of weeks ago, we looked at that. If
4. 3:15 4. "Let all things be done for building up" — Verse 26 exposition
   If you weren't, let me catch you up. He says everything needs to be done for building up. That's what he's getting back to you. He says when we receive the gifts of the spirit, the way that each gift needs to be exercised is is so that all will be built up. And when we're talking about building up the church, we're talking about strengthening the church, right? The people of God. The church isn't a building. The church isn't a property. The church is the people. We are Austin Heights. We happen to have a building. You can say that you're coming to Austin Heights as long as what you mean is you're coming together with the saints who are Austin Heights, right? We are the church. And so that's what he's saying. You're building up the church. You're strengthening the body of believers. So he's saying if you have a hymn or a song or a psalm, he's saying make sure it's for building up the church. If you have a lesson of some kind of of teaching, make sure it's for building up the church. She's saying if you've got a tongue or an interpretation or a prophecy, make sure it's for building up the church. In all things, make sure it's done to build up the church. Spiritual gifts are not given for self-expression. They are given to >> build up the church. Well done. Well done. Well done. Well done. Well done. Everything that happens when the church gathers is meant to serve the good of others. And that's what this text is really getting at. How does the church act when we gather together? Now, Paul's dealing with some particular issues here in the text in Corinth, and I think we can learn from them. Um, when Allison and I do, my wife Allison and I, when we do premarital mentoring, when we're mentoring a couple who's about to be married, one of the things we always say to them is if it's the goal of both husband and wife to outserve the other, it's going to go well for both of you. It'll go well in your marriage. If your goal is to outserve the other, that means that and you're both consistently trying to outdo one another and showing honor and serving each other in that manner. What ends up happening is both of you are very well served, right? It's the exact same in the church. If our goal is to outserve one another in the context of a community like
5. 5:30 5. Marriage analogy — mutual service in the church
   like this, if our goal is to outserve one another on a consistent basis, that means not only that we participate in it, but that we also receive and we are all built up in the Lord. That's what this is talking about. and you go, "Well, that sounds great. Why is Paul writing anything to correct them otherwise? Who would think different than that?" And I would say, 'Oh, you don't remember the start of this letter. One of the things I I talked about when we first began um studying First Corinthians, I quoted Sean and Rosner. said, "Corinth, the city of Corinth, was prosperous, cosmopolitan, and religiously pluralistic, accustomed to visits by impressive traveling public speakers and obsessed with status, self-promotion, and personal rights. They were obsessed with status, self-promotion, and personal rights." That's the city and the culture of Corinth itself. Now, here's what happened. They brought some of that city and culture into the church with them. You know, we all do that, right? We all bring our past, our baggage, our issues, all those things. We all bring all of those things every time we come together. Every time we function as a community, we're all bringing something with us. And what they were bringing was a little bit too much of Corinth. See, they were brand new Christians. And you got to be patient with them. Imagine, oh man, if they wrote a letter about me in my first few years of Christianity. And that's what's happening here. This is a brand new group of Christians in the first generation
6. 7:00 6. POINT 1: The Disorder of Status Seeking — Corinth's culture of status
   generation of Christians ever. So that's that's going to be a problem and that's that's the letter that we have. They were living a lot like the city and they hadn't yet been transformed. And so Paul's writing to them to say there's some of that stuff that you need to leave on the outside. He's saying you're acting a little bit too much like Corinthians and not enough like followers of Jesus. And so that's the world they lived in. They were very me me. Build me, train me, hear me, watch me, see me, serve me. And that was the world that they came from. And again, they brought that into the context of the church. And that means that they're well, when he says, "Let all things be done for building up," what he's saying is is you got to care about others in the church. You can't just worry about your own interests. Okay? He's been talking about building the church since chapter 3. So, we're in chapter 14 now. All the way back in chapter three, he was saying this in verse 10. He said, "According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I lay a foundation and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it." And then he says in verse 11, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. So he's saying, "All of us are called to build in the church, build one another up, but none of us are called to change the foundation." He goes, "So start there. The foundation is Jesus. All things that need to be done in the church by the people for the people in that sense need to have the aim of building others up. Right? Let all things be done for building up. But the building work happens on the one foundation. It's immovable. You don't get to change that. You don't get to mess with that. That stays forever. It's all about Jesus. It's always been about Jesus. And with Jesus as the foundation that we stand on, when we seek to love and serve others in a Christ centered way, that's when it truly becomes about others. You keep
7. 9:00 7. How status seeking played out — tongues and prophecy misused
   keep Jesus at the center, now you care for others very well. Don't put anything else in the center. Just Jesus. He's the foundation. So, if it's true that they were kind of obsessed with status and self-promotion and personal rights, and I I think it is true based on the scholarship that we read and the way that the letter is structured, um, one of the ways that they would have been increasing their status or trying to promote themselves or fighting for their own rights among themselves as a community, they would have exercised like a very self-centered way of being. One of the ways they would have done that would be in the context of the gathered church. So, you got to hear me. This is the key. They were using church services when the church gathered, whether that was in a life group or a prayer meeting or on a a Sunday like this when we gather together. They were using the gathering of of God's people to flex their spiritual gifts for the sake of their own advancement. Not simply to serve others and to glorify God. They would come in and say, "Here are my spiritual gifts. Now view me like this. I want to be elevated in your sight. Look at the text. Verse 27. If any speak in a tongue, let there be two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there's no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent. Let 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 may be encouraged. And the spirits of prophets are subject to profits. So there were times in the church in Corinth that we would see in general where they were interested in using their spiritual gifts in a way to gain status among the community. In general, we just know that was true. But in particular, they were using the opportunity they had in the gathered church. They were using tongues and prophecy to gain status. This is the the issues that they had in their church. Paul listed a bunch of spiritual gifts in chapter 12, but he keeps coming back to prophecy and tongues because prophecy and tongues were the ones that were being abused. And when our spiritual gifts become a way of securing status within the community or even in the broader church around us, then it means we're no longer building the church, we're building the self. What happens when we build the self or we seek status is that we actually bring disorder to the community of God's people. So you got to hear me. Status seeking and building others up are mutually exclusive. They're oil and water. You can't do one and the other. You do one or the other. Seeking status, building the church, you can't do both. Well, just one. Now, if we're honest, I think this pressure is not unique to Corinth. It's not unique to the first century and it's not unique to the first generation of Christians. I think it's a human heart condition. If
8. 12:00 8. Modern application — temptation to "flex" spiritual gifts
   If you're a follower of Jesus, you know that there's times where you're in a Bible study or you're in a life group or you're in a prayer meeting or you're in a discovery class or you're here on a Sunday, you can be tempted to use the spiritual gifts that God's given you to just prove that you matter. You can do that and or you can at least be tempted to do that. And I think it's really unsettling when we're tempted to do that and we're using the gifts that God's given us and we're contributing as we as we can and then what happens is and here's where we feel this often times is our gifts are then overlooked. Somebody else gets noticed. Maybe somebody else gets that opportunity you wanted. Maybe somebody else gets a chance to do that thing that you've been I'm really hoping I can get to do that. Somebody else gets the praise. All of a sudden, you sit there and you think, "Well, guess I need to flex a little bit." You know, you're on the bench. Coach doesn't see my skills. I need to flex a little bit to show everybody what I can do. That's how it starts. And it's a heart issue. It starts in the heart. when somebody else gets praised or somebody else gets a chance or or or forget about that, you just get overlooked or you get maybe forgotten about and you think, you know what I need to do? I see what they're doing. They're flexing. It's my turn. I got to go flex. And it starts that oneupsmanship. It doesn't serve anybody. The only thing you're doing is trying to cultivate status in your own life. And the the problem of our heart is that we quietly measure our worth by how visible we are or how often we're heard or how much influence we have. And when that happens, again, our gifts stop being about strengthening the whole body and they become a way of securing a sense of who we are or our identity and we do it in our own strength. And this is why Paul doesn't just give them practical instructions about, you know, taking turns and limiting how many people speak. He gives the practical instructions, but he but he does something else. And I want you to notice this. It's the second point that we're going to look at. But he takes them to a theological point. He doesn't just say, "Only two of you get to speak in tongues at a time." Oh my gosh. He doesn't just say, "Look, we've already had just three prophetic words is enough." He says that, but he says something else. He takes him to a theological point because the way that the church gathers is not just about logistics or personality or preference.
9. 14:30 9. Transition to theology — Paul anchors correction in theology
   preference. It's about it's it's a reflection of what we believe about God. So in the middle of all the correction that he's giving them, he anchors the entire conversation in one I think really profound point. Verse 33, it says, "For God is not a God of confusion but of peace." See, anytime we're looking at the scriptures, we want to look and say, "What am I seeing about the nature and character of God in this text?" This is it right here. That's the second point. uh the God of peace, right? So the disorder in their gatherings, it's not just a social problem. It's not just a status problem. It's first and foremost a theological problem. They're the way they're gathering and the way they're caring for each other or in this case not caring for each other is a reflection of what they believe about God. And that we need to see this. Look at verse 33 again. I think it's the center of the text that we're looking at. For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. It's a short verse. carries a lot of weight. And when Paul says that God is a God of peace, that's not just a comment about like the volume in a worship service where you walk in and you go, "Well, if it was a little quieter, I'd have maybe have some peace." It's not talking about your experience of peace. Not yet. It's making a point about who God is and his nature and character. It's it's, you know, when you walk into a cathedral or something like that or even this place when it's empty, when I walk in here, I go, it's a sense of peace that you feel. It's a beautiful thing. It's just not that. It's not what he's talking about. Not yet. That's your experience of peace. What he's talking about first and foremost is the nature and character of the God who is peace. If you think about it biblically from from the first book of the Bible, Genesis to the last book of the Bible, Revelation, all the way through the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, God is at work restoring a broken world, fixing a broken world, reconciling people to himself in relationship.
10. 16:30 10. POINT 2: The God of Peace — 1 Cor 14:33 exposition
    relationship. And then as the overflow of that helping people be reconciled to one another. See the outworking of God's character is peace because he brings peace. In fact, he makes peace. See, peace reflects God's character. And because of that, peace then reflects God's rule in our lives. This is what I mean. Wherever God's authority is gladly received, God's peace is then experienced. Wherever God's authority is received, then we can experience the peace of God. You don't experience the peace of God until you know that he is the God of peace. See, any kind of chaos or any kind of disorder in the way that we gather together, anything that we see like that in our community, whether that's a life group or prayer meeting, kids ministry, youth students downstairs right now, young adults, any any ministry that we have, men's, women's connect, all the different things that we do. If there's disorder in the in the context of those things, it's out of alignment with God. True peace reveals God's presence and the reign of God, the rule of God in our midst. Now, I think that vision of peace is very compelling in our generation. There's lots of public intellectuals, Christian and non-Christian scholars and people who write about these things that would call our generation, everyone who's alive right now, the age of anxiety. When you talk to people about what's going on in their life, what do they say? Woo! So busy. as though that's a badge of honor. I'm so busy stressed. Why? There's generally pretty good reasons, I think. What's What's the What's the desire behind that? What What's the thing we want? It's peace. People who don't know Jesus go about finding peace in ways that people who don't know Jesus go about living. people who know Jesus who are stressed and busy and frustrated and challenged and all whole other source of you know all sorts of things that we experience. How do we go about finding peace? Well, we go to God. Our lives are marked by hurry and comparison and tension, pressure to prove ourselves. And sometimes even places that are meant to be safe get turned into that kind of culture. That could even be in a family in a home and it can be in the church. And it certainly was part of the church in Corenth. There's a quiet like undercurrent of competition or insecurity that's manifesting itself in really weird ways. It's happening in the church and that can happen in our church and we have to pay attention to that because that's going to disrupt So the passage gives us a glimpse of something different. It shows us what life can feel like when God is at the center. It's not chaos. It's not rivalry. It's not spiritual performance. It is actually a community that's shaped by peace. And so the problem that Paul's addressing here in Corenth is basically that because of the self-centeredness of the people in Corenth, their gatherings, their services had some chaos in them. They had little chaos. They were obsessed with status and self-promotion and personal rights and said, "Me, me, me, me, me. Build me, listen to me, see me. Let me do it. Put me in charge." All kinds of stuff like that. But the problem is when everyone's looking out for number one, it creates confusion. And that confusion was visible in the way that they got together as a community. When everybody's trying to speak up in a way that's not serving the whole community. It's there for status. I want to be heard. It's not there to serve. I want to build up. Two different things. Hey, that can happen with six people in a life
11. 20:00 11. "The age of anxiety" — modern relevance
    life group. Oh, you're all so kind. Like you've never experienced this or been that person. Like I'll I'll tell you I like I've had some bad days as a pastor. I've been a pastor for like 20 years. I remember a staff meeting probably 10 years ago that I was leading and I did not like the staff meeting I was leading and I did not not like some problems that were going on in the church and I thought some of the people on our staff team needed to fix those problems and I made that meeting about me and I sat there and I in the moment was convicted by the Holy Spirit and thought I'm not building anyone up at the moment. I'm using my gift of leadership to absolutely dominate these folks and I'm so sorry. I've done it. So have you. Mhm. You've at least been in the context. You've been in the group. You're like, man, he's been talking for 30 minutes. It's a 60-minute discussion. We're 35 minutes in. She carries all Why does she respond to everything? oftenimes you get to the heart underneath it and a lot of it is just I need to be heard which in and of itself isn't an evil thing but if it's I need to be heard so that I feel okay it can be a problem that's all that Paul's dealing with people who said I need to be heard so that I know I'm okay it's not building up the church it's confusion on a corporate scale now confusion might not be the strongest word that we could use. Like it's not like, you know, when you're driving somewhere and and you just kind of are in unfamiliar spot, you just turn and you go, "Whoa, I don't recognize this." This happened to Alison and I the other day. I've never driven through here. Was in a city that we lived in for 13 years and I went, "I've never been down this road. I have no idea where we are." Right? That can cause a little bit of confusion. That's confusion. That's like, "Whoops, this is confusing." The word in our text actually could be translated more like anarchy. Let me let me show you another place it's used uh in the New Testament. James 3:13, "Who is wise and understanding
12. 22:00 12. Confusion as anarchy — James 3:13-18 cross-reference
    understanding among you by his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice." That disorder is the same word as our confusion. Right? Verse 16. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice. Jealousy, selfish ambition, and the self-centered need to be heard. All of that creates an anarchy that needs to be understood. It It's an anarchy that it's different than confusion. It's like it's like I'm here to I'm here to riot, right? I'm here to riot like the Kucks lost again. Like that kind of that's that's anarchy. That's what this is actually talking about. It is saying I understand the rules and I understand the authorities and I'm going in the face of them. So I think confusion might be too soft of a word in our text because it can be it can mean the same thing as anarchy but but right jealousy selfish ambition self-centered that creates anarchy. But when God is at the center and our character and our conduct falls in line with the nature and character of God, then we will experience his peace. Right? God is not a God of anarchy but of peace. So just look at the contrast um when we move to put God back at the center of it. Keep reading in James 3. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere, and a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. And so here's what I'm trying to say. When we honor God and follow the God of peace, we make peace. When we elevate ourself, we make anarchy. Choose your outcome. That's what this is saying. This text is
13. 24:00 13. Peace vs. anarchy contrast
    is about the way that we do things as a church when we gather, whether it's small or big. It can't just be for our own good. Because the way we do things communicates what we believe about God. It's all about God. There is a God- centered way to live as the church that displays the nature and character of God to the watching world around us. So, we have to be cognizant of the fact that we're preaching something by the way we treat each other. You want to see a verse of scripture that I don't have on a slide and I'm not going to take you to, but John 13:35, Jesus basically says, "The world will know who I am by the way you love one another." It's a theological problem. Not just a social problem, not just a status problem. It's a theological problem. The disorder of status seeking. Number two, the God of peace. And number three, the security of the gospel. Okay? A peaceful gathering of the church is a theological witness. We just talked about this. The way that we gather reveals who we believe Jesus is and how we understand what he has done for us, done for us. Now, now Paul is writing to correct the self-centered status seeeking that's going on in the church in Corinth. But you got to remember the reason that we seek status is that we're we're trying to feel secure and we think that if we get that status then we'll feel okay. So we try to secure worth or we try to secure belonging or we try to secure significance and we do it in our own strength. But the gospel tells us that in Christ, all of those things that we want are actually already ours. This is the security of the gospel. Let me show you Philippians chapter 2. Listen to verses 1-4. So if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not
14. 26:00 14. POINT 3: The Security of the Gospel
    not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. and you go, "Yes, that would create a really beautiful community." Do you know what? That sounds impossible. Like when you read that, just those four verses, some of you know what comes next. Forget it for a second. You read just those four verses, that sounds utterly impossible. How are we supposed to do that? Well, listen. Verse five. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and put on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The first thing sounded impossible until Jesus did it. And now we can. Jesus didn't cling to his position. He was not hanging on to his status as something he was unwilling to let go of. But he humbled himself. He became a servant. God Almighty became man. He became a servant. Not only did he become a servant, but he came to the point of death. Not even just death, but death on a cross. He super humbled himself. That cosmic level of humility that the God of the universe became a servant and died a criminal's death upon the cross. He he he humbled himself and that humility took him all the way to the cross. He died, but he didn't just die. He died for us. I would say in fact, he died instead of us because his death was an atoning death. He didn't hang on to his status. He laid it all down. And then because of that, when he's raised up from the grave, he's resurrected, a name that is bestowed upon him that is above every name. See, in his super humility, he also then experiences
15. 28:00 15. Philippians 2:1-11 — Christ's humility exposition
    experiences a super exaltation. We need to see that he dies in our place, not hanging on to his own rights. He wasn't worried about his status. He wasn't worried about what was best for him. He was obedient to the will of God. He died for us and he died instead of us. And that substitution is Jesus making a way for us. See Jesus humility and his service of others cannot be an example to us. And it cannot be the empowerment we need to do this. See Jesus as mere example like like the whole world thinks Jesus is a great example. It doesn't matter what you believe about anything. Well, Jesus seemed like a pretty good guy. You don't have to believe that he is who he said he is to have a concept that he was a good person who taught good things. Like I grew up in a non-Christian household and I was taught the golden rule. I was so surprised when I started reading the Bible on my own at 20 years old. I was like, "Oh, that's the golden rule." My mom told me that. No idea that that was from Jesus. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That was just sort of like seared into my mind from my childhood because I was not a good kid. It's Jesus. Everybody thinks Jesus is great. You know what? Jesus as an example will crush you. You'll never live up to him. You need a substitute. You need somebody who can make your sin go away. You need somebody who can pay the penalty for that sin. You need somebody who can wipe the slate clean and say, "Here's a doover. Here's a fresh start. In fact, here's a new creation." You need somebody who comes in and says, "You could never do it on your own, but I paid it for you." You need somebody who says, "The cosmic debt that you owe to God for the way that you've done things that are wrong and for the good things that you decided not to do, every single human being's born, ever born is guilty of this. You need someone who comes in and goes, I know you can't pay. I already settled the account. All you need to do is trust me." And that's how Jesus becomes not just an example but becomes a substitute. Now when you have him as a substitute then he becomes an example. Do you see this? You have to have him as substitute first. Then you can have him as an example. See he set his status aside in order to secure a new status for us as children of God. So when we understand that we already have everything we need in Christ, that we are already known and already loved and already secure and that we don't have to prove ourselves and we don't have to impress anybody and we don't need to just sort of scrap with each other for like little bits of status like breadcrumbs falling off the master's table. When we realize we're free from all of that and that we're not going to lose anything if we humble ourselves and serve for others, it's so good. It's beautiful, right? In fact, we don't have to just try and find little scraps of bread that are like status and just like collect them from the Oh, we're just down on the floor beneath the table. There's the table of the master and we're just picking up just if I could just have a little bit more worth. If I could just do a little bit more to feel okay. No, no, no, no. What's yours is you can sit at the table. You're children of the master. He's adopted you as his own. You have everything you need in Christ, which means you don't have to step on someone else in the church to get ahead of them so that you can have the status that'll make you feel okay. You know, Brett, that's really insightful. Thank you so much. No problem. I've been trying to fight against this for about 25 years. I'm familiar just like you. Christianity is not complicated. It's just not easy. It's simple, but it's not easy. Philippians 2:3 says, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also the interest of others." See, what happens is when the gospel of Jesus begins to transform your heart, it changes how you show up when the church gathers.
16. 32:00 16. Identity in Christ — already known, loved, secure
    gathers. And and that's where we need to go next in the text because that's where it's taking us. See what we're saying about the gospel of Jesus in the way we practically function together as the gathered church that that screams what we truly believe. The way we function says something about what we believe. Now, there's lots of right ways to organize a life group or a gathering of the church like this. There's lots of ways to do it right. But there's also wrong ways to do it. And that's what Paul's writing to the church in Corinth about. There were a few wrong things they were doing that he's correcting. Yeah. So, we're going to look at the text and we need to see that there are three groups of people here in the text who are being told to be silent. Three groups. First group, 1 Corinthians 14 27. 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 the church and speak to himself and to God. Talked about this a number of weeks ago. Uh if somebody gets up and says, "I've got a tongue or a language uh that I want to share with the whole church." There needs to be an interpretation of that tongue or it's out of order. Uh because it's unintelligible and nobody can be built up by it. So we need to have the tongue and the interpretation. That's good. It's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. He's saying so when you're gathered, whether it's Sunday prayer meeting, life group, wherever it is, two or three at most, that's what he says. And only if they're interpreted. If not, be silent. You need to express that tongue in a way that honors God. And so if your need to express that is out of order, in a way that's unintelligible, it's not for the benefit of the whole community, it's just going to create confusion. See, what they were doing in Corinth is they were coming up and saying, "Excuse me, I have a tongue. Everyone listen to me. I'm very, very, very, very spiritual." That's
17. 34:00 17. Gospel transformation changes how we gather
    That's basically what was going on. And Paul says, "Stop. You're just creating disorder." Second group, verse 29, let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said or test 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 be encouraged. And the prophets. For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. Hey, so if you've got a prophetic word, what he's saying is is relax. Do it in an orderly way. There's two or three that we're going to have delivered. If you got one beyond that, don't worry about it. The Holy Spirit's speaking and he can speak to his church through somebody else. Doesn't have to be you. Let somebody else speak. And then he says, also, you got to give some time to test or to weigh or judge the prophetic word because not every prophetic word delivered in a gathered church is going to be true or accurate. So, you need to test it. Uh there's a guy named Michael Green. He's got seven questions that he asks to sort of verify this. This might be helpful in your life groups or or you know anywhere you are. But he asks a few questions. Does it glorify God rather than the speaker, the church, or the denomination? And so somebody gets up and says, "I got a prophetic word." And the prophetic word basically sounds like I'm super spiritual and awesome and you should all listen to me about everything I have to say. You can go probably wrong or at least partly wrong. And you weigh that. You test that. Right. Second one. Does it accord to scripture? This is why it's important to know the Bible because if somebody comes along and utters to you a prophetic false teaching and you go, "Woo, that sounds juicy." No, no, no, no. You discern it and you weigh it against the truth of scripture. So, if it doesn't accord with scripture or align with scripture, this would be fun for me seven times in a row. Does it build up the church? That's the question. Does it build up the church? Is it
18. 36:00 18. Group 1 told to be silent: Tongue speakers (vv. 27-28)
    it spoken in love? Um, great question from somebody um in between the first and the second services. They said, "Well, sometimes prophetic words seem like a real challenge to a person." 100%. But that can still be spoken in love. If it's spoken in anger or condemnation, it's not from God because that does not align with scripture or the character of God. So, someone speaks a condemning prophetic word, you just open up Romans 8:1 and you say, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ." And then you go, "Ah, because it's awesome." Number five, does the speaker submit himself or herself to the judgment and consensus of others in spiritual humility? If somebody says, "I think I may have a word for the church like to share it with you." That humility is a really good thing. If they don't have that, look up. Is the speaker in control of him or herself? Uh this was something that happened in the ancient world a lot with pagan religions is you would have ecstatic prophecies that were coming in that world and they would be all frothing around and and and Paul's going no the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet the person prophesying is in control and if they're not it's probably not from God. And then six or seven is there a reasonable amount of instruction or does the message seem excessive in detail which just tells me that Michael Green's been through some stuff. That's all that tells me. Excessive detail prophecy. Okay. If someone needs then he says Paul's saying this, if someone else has a word, let them speak. Because if you're if you're demanding to be heard, you're forcing your way into a position that is probably going to create confusion. And and honestly, we're just not about that anarchy. So, we don't need that. And God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. So there's a sense I think that Paul is talking about tongues and prophecy again here in the text because tongues and prophecy were the gifts that were being abused in the context of the Corinthian church.
19. 38:00 19. Group 2: Prophets (vv. 29-33)
    church. Now I doubt anybody has any problem with what I've said with the first two groups of people that were told to be silent. Let's talk about the third one verse second part of of verse 33. 1 Corinthians 14. 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 All right, and that's the end of our service. This has been great. No, honestly, like if there's a pastor with like, you know, a bunch of sons, I don't think you can make that joke. but with a wife and three daughters who are all very gifted. I make that joke. I'm also at a safe distance from all of them at the moment. What's going on? What is this? Like, we're reading this. I'm I'm I'm watching your faces while we're reading the text and you you're all like, "Okay, back in 1 Corinthians 11, just a couple chapters earlier, few chapters earlier, Paul spends a huge chunk of time talking about how women should pray and prophesy in church. like a lot of time actually in the text about how they should do it, when they do it, how they should do it. He's assuming it's going to happen. So, so I don't think he means silent silent. It must mean something else. I don't I don't think he expected the, you know, the greeters at the door of the church in Corinth to stand there with little duct tape. Every gal who walked by was just given a piece. You may be tempted later. That's not what it's saying. That's not what it's saying. When he says the people speaking in tongues should be silent and the people who are are prophesying should be silent. He doesn't mean silent silent like totally silent. He means they should be quiet when someone else is speaking. It's pretty clear that's what he means with tongues and prophecy. Look at the text again in verse 34. 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. Okay. We use on on Sundays when we preach we use the English standard version the ESV. I think it's a great translation. It's very very good. There is a a worldclass team of scholars who translated the ancient Hebrew and Greek and then some Aramaic into English so that we can study our Bible or whatever language you read the Bible in. It's a phenomenal phenomenal world-class translation. So, and I say that because I don't want to give you any sense that there's something wrong with it or anything like that. I do think there's a a word here that we could translate a little bit differently and I think it would make it more helpful when it says the women should keep silent in the churches. I think it makes more sense in the context of this passage and in light of the whole of First Corinthians and in fact in light of the whole Bible. I think it it makes
20. 41:00 20. Group 3: Wives (vv. 33-35) — contextual interpretation
    makes more sense especially where it's saying here that they can ask their husbands at home. I think it makes more sense to translate that word as wives. Wives and women is the same word in Greek but translated differently based on the context. So it could read the wives should keep silent in the churches if there's anything they desire to learn. Let them ask their own man or their husband at home. You're like that's not the part of that's not the part we're worried about. I understand that's not the part of the text that you're concerned with. Okay. Why is he singling out a particular group of Corinthian wives who need to be quiet, be in submission, and just ask their husbands what they're wondering about when they get home? Why does he say that? Okay, for the exact same reason he tells some men and some women who are speaking in tongues out of order and some men and some women who are prophesying out of order, the same reason he tells both of them to be silent. It was a chaotic, disorderly conduct kind of thing they were bringing to the church. He just said just for all three groups that are causing some confusion here, please be quiet. Here's what he's getting at. Like we're I mean other than those of you that got here really early so you could secure like your seat cuz I know you've got your seat out here and you're very like that's my seat. It's great. The rest of you are sitting wherever you felt like. Right. Mixed seating. It wouldn't have been like that in Corinth. Now in Corinth, the church was much smaller because it was the first church in Corinth and there weren't that many people evangelized. They think the church may have been 100 to 200 total and they met in different groups around the city. So there may have been 50 people in a gathering and the 50 people would have been divided by the men and women on one side or sorry the women and children on one side and the men on the other. So imagine this women and children sitting on one side, men sitting on the other divided. Somebody says, "I have a prophetic word." One of the leaders says, "Come on up." Person gives a prophetic word. Now they say, "We have to weigh this and judge this and test this." So now there's a few leaders and they're standing down over here and they're having a conversation amongst themselves testing what was just said. And here's what's going on. There's a bunch of guys sitting on this side of the room and a bunch of gals sitting on this side of the room with some children. And the wife over HERE IS GOING, "HEY, WHAT'S HAPPENING?" And the husband's like, "Shh, it's not it's out of order." And the other wife goes, "Well, I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING EITHER, HONEY." And the husband shouts back, "They're they're testing the prophecy. What's prophecy?" And there's disorder in the room while they're trying to weigh a prophecy or while they're trying to figure out the interpretation of a tongue or while they're trying to get ready to do some teaching or maybe while some teaching is happening, they're shouting across the room at each other and eventually Paul says, "Silent, be quiet. It's causing confusion." And then the text says, "The shamefulness that comes when somebody continually speaks up at inappropriate times in inappropriate ways and interprets the gathering and or sorry interrupts the gathering in a way that that one of my scholar friends who teaches first Corinthians at a seminary, she said this. She said the shamefulness is that they are overriding others and really overriding the spirit." And again, in light of earlier uh again in light of earlier in the chapter, it brings cultural shame if that's how women act in the church and and someone were to look in. So, it's a different culture with a different setting with different problems. And Paul knows them because he lived there for a year and a half. And then he's got a report from some people about what's going on in the church. And so, he's writing to them. He goes, "No more prophesying out of order. Be silent. No more speaking in tongues out of order. Be silent. And some of you wives be silent. Just ask your husband when you get home. I think that's what's happening here in the text. And you got to remember, due to absolutely no fault of their own, most first century Corinthian women were not educated at all. And the church would have been the first place where they were ever treated with a measure of equality. And they're exercising that equality in a disruptive way. And Paul's just saying, "Hey, be silent when other people are speaking. Don't interrupt with questions. Just ask your husband when you get home. Hey, BJ Orop is a good scholar on 1 Corinthians on the context of it. He says, "Paul is forbidding wives from uninspired talking when others are inspired to speak." Okay, that's what's going on. So, the outof order tongue speaker can be silent. The outof order prophetic person can be silent. And the outof order wife interrupting the service because she's got questions can be silent because God is not a God of confusion but of peace. Then verse 39 says, "My brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy and do not forbid speaking in tongues, but in all things, but all things should be done decently and in order." And here's what I want you to know at kind of the end of our spiritual gifts, two months of spiritual gifts. The same God that gives gifts calls for order. God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. So when his people gather, it shouldn't be confusing, but peaceful. So Jesus modeled a life of others focused humility when he gave himself up for us as our substitute. That's what enables us to repent of our sin and receive forgiveness. So when his people gather, they should do it to build up others because that's how Jesus lived. They should consider the interests of others, not just their own interests. So when God's people gather with Christ at the center, we should expect to experience the gifts of the Holy Spirit in a way that builds up the church. Amen. >> Amen. Would you stand as we respond? The band are going to come and lead us in worship. There'll be some folks up here at the front to pray with. Uh Stephen Allison will be up here at the front. And wonderful. And if if you want to pray with some people right now, you just maybe came, you're kind of burdened and maybe wanting to share that with someone and have them pray for you, just make your way to your seat anytime in the next couple songs. Just make your way up here. They'd love to pray for you. They came ready to pray for you today. Um, I'm going to pray for us in a moment. I'd encourage you to pray with one another as well. Um, particularly if this topic is hard for you or this this maybe some of these verses are are something that maybe you've you've heard in a different way before. Also, maybe this is just a really rough season for you and you you're a little bit sad, maybe overburdened, maybe there's some significant problems in life. We we don't know what's going on unless you share. And so that person standing next to you might deeply care for
21. 48:00 21. Closing summary and prayer
    for you, but they don't know because you because you look okay. Well, let's be open with each other and just share out of what's going on in our lives and allow others to step in there and carry those burdens alongside with us. Yeah. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the chance we have to be together today. We thank you for the instruction of your word, the clarity that it provides on how we're to love one another as you have loved us. And uh God, we want you to be famous. We want you to be made known. We want you to be made known in our city and in our neighborhoods and in the places where we've got co-workers and friends and family who don't yet know you and and maybe they've never even heard of you before. Um so we're just asking that you give us opportunities as Easter's approaching and that you'd help us to do it and if they come and watch how we function as a church. Lord, I pray that that um they would see that that we're a community who have been loved and then in turn are loving. And we pray for your help to do all that because we can't do it on our own. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's sing.

Key Themes

Research Notes