Sunday Sermon: Let Everything be Done in Order (1 Corinthians 14:26-40)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe.

Orderly Worship in 1 Corinthians 14

So 1 Corinthians 14 is where we are. Finishing up the section that, well I left off in verse 26 so let me begin reading there. We will go to the end of the chapter and then pick up our lesson. Hear the word of the Lord.

The Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth. What then brothers, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.

Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent, for you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be encouraged.

And the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets, for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says.

If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached?

If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues, but all things should be done decently and in order.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to this text today, as we consider the orderliness by which you have established things, and the submission that we are all to be under with regards to obeying your commands, lead us and guide us in these things.

If there is anything that we do not understand here, give us patience, give us pause, help us to seek and to ask of those who can teach us and guide us, and let all things be done orderly, because you have arranged things in order.

There is order that God has given to everything, and so let us be in submission to that. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen. Everything needs to have order. What would we have if there wasn't order or structure?

What would there be? Chaos. Chaos, right. You know this. There's one ministry out there, and in fact, this is a saying that I'm hearing spread out far and wide. I'm hearing more and more people say this, say this expression.

It's kind of a creed now. Christ or chaos? You can see that in our nation, right? Either our nation will have Christ, or our nation will have chaos. That's what we see going on. God is a God of order.

He is a God who created things and structured things to have order. The very creation account, when we read it in Genesis 1, is structured and ordered. On this day, this. On this day, that. And everything has its time and its place.

God has set things a certain way. Fish to be in the sea, birds to be in the air, the mammals and other land animals to be on the land. God has structured and ordered all things to be a certain way. And so it is also in the church, right?

Even the church has a structure or an order, and that's what we've been reading about as we've been going through chapter 14. How has God structured the church to function? Now in this particular section, you'll notice the couple of times that came up.

Verse 33, God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. Verse 40, all things should be done decently and in order. So what do you think our theme is here in this passage? Let there be structure and order, even within the church, even when it comes to worship.

Don't be in disorder. Don't be in chaos. If you've ever seen the videos of those Pentecostal or heavily charismatic churches where people are running around in circles, barking like dogs, not even joking, they're literally doing that.

Speaking in tongues, one over the top of the other, some prophesying over another. Every once in a while, I'll see a video where it just seemed like everybody's doing their own thing. One guy's got a microphone and doing something.

Another guy's got a sword swinging it around. Not joking about that either. Another person's singing songs. Another person's howling at the moon, whatever it is they happen to be doing. All you see there is chaos.

How can Christ be in that? They claim it's a move of the Holy Spirit, but how can it be of God when there's no order or structure? For Paul says plainly, God is not a God of confusion. All of this confusion and chaos going on.

He is a God of peace and he intends that all things be done decently and in order. So even when it comes to the practice of these particular gifts that we've seen contrasted over the course of chapter 14, prophesying and speaking in tongues, even when it comes to these spiritual gifts, there's a particular practice for them.

There's a structure. There's an order. Paul has placed priority on which gift? Prophecy, yeah, prophesying. And which is the least of those gifts? Speaking in tongues, right? So he has placed a priority on prophesying so that others may hear and understand.

That's the whole reason. It's the whole point. You prophesy so that people can understand. Unbelievers may come to faith, may be convicted over their sin. Believers will be edified and built up. But if you're speaking in tongues, no one understands what you're saying.

So how can the unbeliever be convicted and how can the believer be built up? And so we come back to that again today with this structure that's being established, a set of rules or instructions on how these gifts are to be properly exercised in the body.

So come back to verse 26 here where Paul says, what then brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

That's been a theme that we've seen throughout chapter 14. If you'll remember back to verse 5, do these things so that the church may be built up. Verse 12, strive to excel in building up the church. And so we have it here again in verse 26, let all things be done for building up.

The purpose of the spiritual gifts, whatever it might happen to be, whether you're talking about the showy gifts like prophesying or speaking in tongues, or you're talking about some of those other things that we had listed in chapter 12, like gifts of administration, discerning spirits and other things.

All of these gifts have been given for the purpose of edifying the church, of building one another up. And they're going to be most effective in that work, in that process, when they're done in the proper categories and the proper order and structure in which God intends.

So notice here that Paul says, each one has a hymn or a lesson or a revelation or a tongue or an interpretation. That doesn't mean, and I kind of said this last week, prefacing the lesson this week, that doesn't mean that everybody has come in here, I've got a song to sing.

Here we go. I hope Andrew's got a space for me for when we get to this part of the service, because I'm going to be leading in a song. Or I've got a revelation, Pastor Tom's going to have to stop doing his sermon at some point so that I can stand up and give my revelation.

That's not what Paul intends by that. Where he says each one, he means specifically those who have been gifted for those particular roles and where that would fall in a structured service. We know that Andrew has been gifted for leading the music here at the church.

And he has even been approved by this church and hired for that task. Is he the only one doing the music at First Baptist Church? No, but he's the one who's been appointed that position of overseeing that those things are done properly and in order.

And we would not be able to have such wonderful, beautiful music, no offense to Andrew, but we would not be able to have it if he was just doing it by himself. Although he is a very talented musician.

He brings together those others in the church who have been gifted for that. So he uses not just his gift of music, but even his gift of administration to be able to organize that. And we have such a wonderful choir and different musicians.

And occasionally we even have different people leading the songs. It's not just Andrew all the time. And so the different persons who have been gifted for this fulfill their gifts for the purpose of building up the church, of edifying one another.

Do you not feel edified by the music here at First Baptist? I certainly do. I can't even remember a Sunday where I walked away going, eh, the music just didn't have it today. I mean, every single Sunday.

It's like, praise God that we can praise God together and lift up our joys to him in the songs that have been written, that have been chosen, that have been organized in the service a certain way. Have you ever been in a church where things are not as structured as this?

Brother Michael has shared with me that when he does pulpit supply on those Sundays, might be one Sunday a month or something like that, but a church calls him up and says, hey, we need a pastor this week.

Are you able to come and preach a sermon? And so he'll arrange somebody to cover his Sunday school lesson, or if he can make it, he'll do the lesson. If it's just down in Tyler, he'll start the Sunday school class with the lesson and then brother Tony will pick up the prayer requests and stuff like that while Michael's hightailing it down to one of those churches down in Tyler so that he can do the sermon.

Anyway, he says a lot of those times when he enters into that church, when he gets there might be a small congregation. It can only be like eight people, but sometimes it's a church of about 20 or 30.

He'll get there and they're still trying to figure out what to sing that morning. Somebody's going, Oh, well, why don't we do him number two 23 and then we'll go from here to four 26, you know, all this, all this kind of thing.

So there's not really been an intentionality there. Like those who have been structuring and organizing the service have not been thinking during the week. What are we teaching this coming Sunday? What's in the Sunday school classes, what's coming from the pulpit?

What have we been talking about lately? What songs would go along with that? What should we be singing with regards to a confession hymn before God? What should we be singing to prepare our hearts to receive the word?

Those things have not been given a good intentionality to it. Now that's not to say those people are unbelievers. They're unsaved because they're not structuring their services properly. That's not what I'm getting at, but isn't the worship more effective when we're more intentioned and structured about the way that we offer that worship, right?

Even worship in Israel was not just, okay, it's this day, let's all come out and sing our songs and whatever else. They knew the festivals, they knew the holidays, they knew a Sabbath was coming up. All of these things structured by God and God is the one who has determined, here is how you are to worship me.

We don't worship God on our own whims. We worship God in obedience to God, right? So with these different roles that Paul has laid out here, someone has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.

He's specifically talking about those who have been gifted for each one of these things and have been given those roles to lead those tasks, those tasks for the purpose of building up the congregation.

Hence that statement there at the end of verse 26, let all things be done for building up. Verse 27, if any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three and each in turn let someone interpret.

But if there is no one to interpret, let each one of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. So remember we have these two gifts contrasted, prophesying, speaking in tongues. Here Paul gives order to speaking in tongues, if any speak in a tongue.

So if there are going to be speaking in tongues in your congregation, now what has Paul said about this in the gathered assembly up to this point? He said this is not what benefits the church. It is prophesying so that others may understand that is beneficial to the church.

So why is he then giving instructions regarding speaking in tongues? Well he gives these rules because if the church is following these rules, how often do you think speaking in tongues is going to happen in the assembly?

Probably never, right? Because some of these persons who are standing up and speaking in tongues, they were kind of showing themselves off. They're like, look at me, I know this other language and I can proclaim in this other language.

Nobody knows what's being said, but they're all sitting there going, wow, that guy must be really, really smart. Listen to him speak in this other language or how gifted by the Holy Spirit he is because he can speak this language that I don't know what's being said, but apparently something's happening here, you know.

Right? But if that person stands up and speaks in an unknown language, unknown to the congregation as we had established earlier, speaking in tongues is a known human language, but it would not be the language that would be known to the people in the congregation.

So if somebody's standing up and speaking in a tongue, first of all, we have structure here. Let there be only two and at most three and each in turn. So one at a time, let there be two people, let there be three.

If a fourth person comes along, is he supposed to have his opportunity to speak in tongues? No. So Paul is very much laid some regulations down here. Let there be two or at most three and each in turn.

So one is talking by himself at his own point. One is talking at another point. Now why would he say two or three? This is my own theory here, but I just kind of have to wonder if the reason why he says two or three, a couple of reasons, first of all, because every testimony may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses, right?

That's the old Testament. Jesus even repeats it in Matthew chapter 18 when it comes to discipline in the church. So if there are two or at most three, then it could be established by those two or three.

Something in the Holy Spirit is really happening here. It's not one guy having his moment. It's that the Spirit is actually moving to communicate something by two or at most three. That may be the reason why Paul sets that first reason.

Second reason is because if there are two or at most three, then once again, that would put some structure, some order to it. So one guy's not running the service and he's just running it, just speaking in tongues.

The whole time we just sat here and listened to a guy speak Spanish and none of us understand Spanish. But if there are two or three, then somebody else is going to have a moment to stand up and the first guy sits down.

So once again, it just kind of prevents there being a spotlight on one person. However, look at the next part. Each in turn and let what? Someone interpret. So at some point, the guy that's talking has to stop to let the next person stand up and interpret what it is that he's saying.

There's been a couple of times that I've done services before where I'm speaking to a congregation that's primarily speaking another language. In fact, the two times that I've done this were the language was Palauan.

The congregation was primarily Palauan, which is a dying language incidentally. Only a few thousand people in the world can speak it. And the second time I did this, my congregation was primarily Korean.

So in both occasions, I had a translator with me and when I would speak, it would be like half a sentence. You ever seen somebody do this? So I'd say half a sentence in my translator next to me would interpret what I'm saying for those who could not speak English.

And like I said, this was done in both Palauan language, which is a beautiful language. I don't know if you know where Palau is. It's one of the Pacific Islands out there by like where Guam is. It turns out that Palau is an American territory.

And so if somebody was born in the sovereign nation of Palau, they also automatically have American citizenship. So with people in Palau who is a very family-oriented people, they would join the military base in Guam and then they would be deployed from Guam over to Fort Riley in Kansas.

And it turns out we had a Palauan congregation, Pacific Islanders in the middle of Kansas because of this. So we had that congregation, the church that they built there in Junction City became part of our church and their pastor joined our pastoral staff.

So what a blessing of the Lord for that to have happened in our small little church there in Junction City, Kansas. But whenever they would have their big get-togethers, the different Palauan populations that are scattered across the United States would actually come to Kansas because it was a central location.

And so we would host the services at our church and they would ask me to come and speak. And so I'm speaking to a people that most of whom don't understand what I say, or at least the older generation because that's all they ever grew up knowing was the Palauan language.

So I'd be speaking in English, somebody would be translating for me. And that's probably the way that this would end up going, even in this structure that Paul is setting up here. Let one speak and another interpret.

So it's not a guy going on and on for 15 or 20 minutes and then the other person stands up and goes, well, I was trying to take notes. I was trying to keep up with all of that, but here's the best of what I got.

I think it would have been the sort of a thing where somebody says something and then somebody's right there interpreting what it is that he's saying. And they're going back and forth that way. So Paul's establishing that.

Here's our structure, here's our order in the church. And in verse 28 he says, but if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. So if there's not an interpreter, is that guy who's speaking in tongues supposed to be getting up and talking?

No, he's supposed to sit down and be quiet. So once again, I ask you, how often then do you think speaking in tongues would have been an exercise in the church with these regulations that Paul is laying down?

Much less. Exactly. Yes. Hardly ever, if ever, would that have been going on? There was a man at a Pentecostal church in Junction City where I was pastor. It was actually one of the largest churches in town and certainly the most influential.

Pentecostalism was very, very big around Junction City. And he was trying to proselytize a young member of my own congregation, young man in his 20s. And he came to me and he said, I'm supposed to sit down with this elder from this church at McDonald's.

Will you come with me and sit down with me and just tell me where he says something stupid so I know that I'm not supposed to listen to this? I was like, why are you even bothering? But you know, he thought that he could witness to the guy too.

I thought that was great. So I went ahead and joined him over at McDonald's and sat and had a conversation. And when he started talking about, you know, speaking in tongues, first he's trying to tell the young man that you've not had a real baptism because you haven't been baptized at our church.

So there was that. But then when he was talking about spiritual gifts and speaking in tongues, have you ever spoken in tongues before? If you haven't spoken in tongues, then you don't have the Holy Spirit.

And so I would just simply push back. And I wasn't going to sit there and say, you're not really speaking in tongues because then it's just my word against his. We're just going back and forth on that.

So I come to the regulations that Paul laid out in first Corinthians 14. So I said, let's look at the structure that's established here. So let there be two or at most three and each one speaking in turn and let there be someone to interpret.

And if there's not someone to interpret, then the person is not supposed to stand up and speaking in tongues. And I said to the man actually knowing how his church worked, I said, is that what's going on in your congregation?

And he said, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's exactly the way that we do it. I said, really? In your church on a Sunday morning, one person speaking in tongues and then another person is interpreting and it's only one person at a time and no more than three.

That's how it works in your church. And he said, yes, we follow exactly what scripture says about this. And the young man in his twenties whom I was sitting with looked at the elder and said, I've been in your church and that's not at all how you guys are doing it.

And so just by me asking those questions, I was able to show the young man, this man's not honest with you. You know, that's not the way his church functions. And you know, the things that he says about the Bible are not going to be true.

So Paul sets an order, he sets a structure here and he doesn't forbid the speaking in tongues. Remember, that's the statement that he makes at the end of the chapter. Do not forbid speaking in tongues.

But he sets this order, he sets this structure. And if the church follows that, then there won't be this disordered chaos and this speaking of stuff that no one benefits from. It puts a cap on it. It regulates it.

But he doesn't just pick on speaking in tongues. Look at where he goes next. In verse 29, 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 prophets. So he's talking specifically about those in the congregation who have been gifted with prophecy or have been given a revelation.

And remember, our understanding of this exercise of prophesying is different today than it was then. At that time, they did not have the completed canon. There were still books of the Bible being written, including this particular letter which is being sent to the Corinthians.

And so God is continuing to reveal prophetic things, even to the elders of this church, so that they, having been given a gift of prophecy, are proclaiming things that have yet to be written down so that the people would hear God's intention through his gospel and the effects of that gospel so that they may live obediently to those things.

So in the teaching in the church, what you would have is somebody is teaching the Old Testament and showing how Christ has fulfilled it, because that's the scriptures that they would have had. They probably also had other letters from the apostles, and so they're preaching those and explaining, here's what the apostles have said about that.

But then there's also prophecy that's being shared, future things that have not yet come to pass, that God is revealing to these persons who have been gifted with prophecy. Now we don't have that today because God's word has been fully revealed to us and canon is closed.

So there's nothing else that needs to be expounded upon. We have it all given to us here in scripture. And Peter says in 2 Peter 1, we have the prophetic word more fully revealed. And so scripture is sufficient for us that we do not need these continued prophecies.

If somebody wants to stand up and say, God has given me a revelation or he has given me a prophecy, okay, let's test that according to what scripture says. If it doesn't come true, what does that make you?

A false prophet. As I've heard Steve Lawson say, there will be a whole lot less false prophets in the world or a whole lot fewer people that would be so anxious to stand up and give a vision of whatever dream they had last night.

If we were still practicing the punishments that were made against false prophets in Israel, we just dragged them out of the parking lot and stoned them. That wasn't to say that we should do that, but there certainly would be less false prophets in the world.

So here with regard to a prophet speaking, somebody prophetically proclaiming in the church and whether that would be, as Paul had said earlier, a revelation or a knowledge or a prophecy or a teaching, all that kind of wrapped up in prophesying.

If someone is going to stand up and proclaim, let him speak himself, just one man, and let the others weigh what is said. And then if a revelation is given to another sitting there, well, that first man sits down and the next person gets up and continues.

And once again, you have testimony that's being established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. This is not just one man speaking on his own, but the Holy Spirit is clearly guiding these three persons who are standing up and proclaiming.

For you can all prophesy one by one, Paul says. That doesn't mean everybody in the congregation gets to stand up and be a prophet. It means those that have been gifted with this, those who are appointed to this, have that opportunity to proclaim what God is revealing, but doing it one at a time.

And then let the others weigh what's being said. That's the same sort of structure that was given to speaking in tongues. You have a person that's speaking a foreign language, another person stands up and interprets.

So with the prophets even, when somebody is standing up and proclaiming or revealing something that God is prophesying through that prophet, then the other prophets who are there, those who have been given that same gifting, can weigh what's being said.

They can test it. And they can stand up to say, yes, this man is speaking from God because I've been given the same revelation, and then continues on. Or that person can say, what he's saying contradicts scripture.

So that person's a false prophet and we should pay no attention to him. Verse 31, you may all prophesy one by one so that, for what purpose? All may learn and all may be encouraged. Is this about a guy standing up in front of everybody and impressing everyone with his prophetic prowess?

No, the reason for this, the reason God would have even given such a revelation to a person is to edify the body. Think of both letters that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. First Thessalonians and second Thessalonians.

In both letters we have prophetic things that are being revealed. Some of the things Paul says to them, he's said to them before. And you'll notice that if you kind of read it in context, Paul say, for you'll know what I had said to you previously, or something like that.

But then he'll say something else where he will say, I say to you what was revealed to me in the Lord. So in this case, he's probably sharing something with them that they had not previously heard. But in both instances, Paul is telling them things that God had revealed to him about Christ's second coming, right?

And why is Paul writing to them about that? So they would be encouraged. In the first instance, in first Thessalonians, the Thessalonians are worried that the friends of theirs who have died have missed out on the day of the Lord.

So are they not going to be there on that day because our friends have died? And Paul assures them the dead in Christ will rise first. And then we who are left will be caught up with them and join the Lord in the air.

And so we will always be with the Lord, everybody, whether they have passed early or whether they're still on earth when Christ returns, every believer gets to participate in that day. Amen. Second letter, the Thessalonians are concerned that the day of the Lord has already happened.

We've all missed it because some false teacher has come along and tried to tell them the day of the Lord has already taken place and you missed out. And Paul writes to them and says, don't pay attention to anybody claiming to be from us or writing a letter from us.

For you know that the day of the Lord won't happen until these things happen first. And why does Paul reveal those things to the Thessalonians? Again, to encourage them, right? So there's two letters, two examples right there of where prophecy is being revealed for the purpose of blessing the saints that we would be blessed and built up and encouraged.

And my friends to this day, we continue to be encouraged by first and second Thessalonians. Christ is coming back. And the lawless one, he will vanquish with the breath of his mouth. So let all things be done for building up.

As Paul says in verse 33, God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. And these things are being done that we may have peace. Have you ever had a week where your whole week was just chaos and you're trying to deal with the world and everything else that you got to do and you get to Sunday and how does Sunday feel?

It's where we get to understand the comment that Paul makes in Philippians 4 and the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Because you've got to church and you got to hear the wonderful things that God has done for you.

What he's done for you in the past, what he's doing for you in the present, what he's going to do for you in your future. And that your sins are not counted against you. And there is laid up for you an eternal treasure, an eternal reward in heaven above with God in Christ Jesus.

I have peace in my heart for that. And it's because all these things were done intentionally. There are appointed in this church certain persons that have been tasked with organizing the different aspects of ministry that happened here.

I've used the pastors, I've referenced Andrew and myself and Tom and the other pastors. Doug, who's going to be teaching next week. We've got different Sunday school teachers. We've got people that organize the children.

We've got all different things in ministry that are going on in this church. Even the librarians today were busy doing something. And you can go check out books in the library that you may continue to be edified with the literature that is there.

We've all got a different ministry function and doing these things as we've been tasked to do them for the purpose of building up the church. And all of that done in order so that there's no confusion, but we may have peace in what is being said and what is being done.

Women, Headship, and Teaching in the Church

This next section, this is really kind of the last section here of 1 Corinthians 14 verses, well, the rest of 32 on to verse 40. So Paul says, as in all the churches of the saints. So everything that has been instructed here is with regards to every church.

This is not just talking about the Corinthians. This is talking about every church in, in every place. And this next section, we have two very controversial verses in verse 34 and 35, the women should keep silent in the churches for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission.

As the law also says, if there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home for it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. Ladies be quiet. Now that was too much volume there, Andrea, that was too much.