G'day everyone. There's some tricky things here
to understand, aren't there? So let's pray, let's
ask God for help as we dig into this tricky but
important passage. Heavenly Father, we thank
you that you're a speaking God. We thank you
that your word is life -giving. And we pray,
Father, that as we look at it now, that you would
give us clarity and understanding. about the
things that you are saying to us. We ask this
in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, well, let's
do a fun little exercise. Word association games.
Do you know those ones? Word association games.
So you say something, the first similar thing
that pops into your head. So if I were to say
cow, you might say milk. Some men would probably
say steak. You know, beef. And really, you know,
you get some deep revelations about yourself,
don't you, when you have these word association
games. You know, we now know who's lactose intolerant.
So let's warm up. Call them out. You know, if
I said Jesus, what words come to mind? All right,
cool. We just understood everyone's theology
pretty well now. Excellent. No, that was good.
Church. Good, yeah. Mission. Tom Cruise, yeah,
yeah, cool. What about spiritual? It's a trickier
one, isn't it? For some people, it might be sort
of like spiritual thinking, mystical, supernatural,
experience, personal. The word I doubt that you
came up with or jumped into your mind when I
said spiritual was construction, building, intelligible,
ordered. But today I want to show you that's
part of what being spiritual is about. See, as
we've seen in 1 Corinthians 12 to 13 so far,
as we've been working through these passages,
we've seen that true spirituality is God's spirit
at work. But it's very different to what most
people think it is. They're playing that word
association game. It doesn't usually match up
with what they're thinking. We saw in 1 Corinthians
12 that belonging to the body of Christ, submitting
to Jesus, serving and depending on one another
as the body of Christ, that is what being spiritual
is about. We saw in 1 Corinthians 13 that pursuing
Christ -like love is the heart of being spiritual.
If you don't have love, you don't have anything.
The Spirit's not really at work. And 1 Corinthians
14, again, what is spiritual is not what you
would expect. Here's the big thing we're going
to see today. Building the body of Christ is
crucial to being spiritual. That's what spirituality
is about. Building the body of Christ is crucial
to being spiritual. And there's three aspects
that we're going to look at as to what building
the body of Christ is all about. Here's what
spiritual people will do. Spiritual people will
strive to build the church, not themselves. They'll
strive to build the church, build the body of
Christ. Spiritual people will speak intelligible
words because they build the church. And spiritual
people will seek ordered gatherings, ordered
gatherings. Because again, that builds the church.
Now, before we begin, it is worth mentioning,
this chapter sparks a lot of debates. Because
everyone's here trying to define what do tongues
and prophecy mean? Are tongues and prophecy around
today? Did they cease when the apostolic foundation
was laid? There's so much ink that's been poured
over this. And I don't want to get bogged down
in the debates. Now, we've got to remember the
Corinthians didn't have the full New Testament
as we do. We're in a different situation to them.
But whatever your view on this stuff, can I just
say there's some things that all Christians should
agree on, actually one key thing, and that is
that Scripture is sufficient. God's Word is sufficient.
It's all that we need. Look with me at verses
36 to 38. Paul himself makes that point. He says,
If you're a Christian, the Bible is God's word,
isn't it? It's the ultimate authority. It's all
we need. And when there's disagreement, it needs
to drive us back to the Bible, back to the Lord's
command. If we can't answer all our questions,
I mean, that's okay. But what we can do is distill
principles and work out what it looks like to
be spiritual people by going back to the Bible.
And that's what we're going to do this morning.
The way forward is to go back to the Bible. So
let's start with our first point. Spiritual people
strive to build the church. If you've got a Bible
there, it'd be great to have it open in front
of you. And we're going to look at verses one
to five. Have a look there what it says. Follow
the way of love or pursue love. And eagerly desire,
and the word gifts isn't actually there in the
original, eagerly desire the spirituals, especially
prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does
not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one
understands them. They are the mysteries by the
Spirit. But the one who prophesies speaks to
people for their strengthening, encouraging,
and comfort. Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies
themselves. but the one who prophesies edifies
or builds the church. I would like every one
of you to speak in tongues, but I'd rather have
you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater
than the one who speaks in tongues unless someone
interprets so that the church may be edified.
So the big thing here Paul's saying is, I want
you to desire, I want you to prioritise prophecy
over tongues because it builds the church. And
we've got to go, well, what is prophecy? Now,
there's some clues here that really help us out.
He says in verse 3 that it strengthens, it edifies
and comforts the church. We see later in the
chapter that prophecy convicts unbelievers. It
exposes them and even converts them. And then
we see that throughout the passage, prophecy
is at various points synonymous with instruction,
with knowledge. It's not at the same level as
scripture because it must be weighed. So it's
a bit like a Venn diagram. You know a Venn diagram?
We've got here the gospel, or you could say Bible
or preaching, and then prophecy. And a Venn diagram's
where, you know, they kind of overlap, but they're
not fully overlapped. That's what we've kind
of got here with prophecy. It's not scripture.
It's not the gospel, but, gee, there's a fair
bit of overlap. So what is it then? Well, I think
perhaps the idea here is that prophecy is people
applying the gospel to the people around them.
Have you ever had that experience? Someone says,
just what you needed to hear by telling you the
gospel. You've been wrestling for months with
guilt and doubt and you're sitting there in a
growth group and someone says, do you know, when
I'm feeling guilty, I remember Christ died for
all our sins and I just hang on to that all and
I focus on that all and gee, it gives me great
comfort. And you go, oh. So good. Or you've got
a secret sin that you keep indulging in and you're
at church and the preacher's preaching the sermon
and without knowing that this is something going
on in your life, he calls you out on it. That's,
I think, prophecies about. Or maybe you're suffering
horribly. You're at morning tea, you know, and
you're going around and you want to be polite.
So you do the whole smile thing, you know. Oh,
yeah, I'm going okay. Inwardly, it's all agony.
And someone talks to you and they just speak
sweet gospel truth. They just say those gospel
truths. And they're not meaning to. They're just
talking. But those words just soothe the wounds
that you're going through. That's what I think
Paul means here by prophecy. It's applying the
gospel to each other. Now maybe there was more
to it and in our day and age we have less of
that. We don't need a new revelation. We've got
the Bible, don't we? But we need to be applying
that word to one another. And what a loving and
beneficial thing that can be. And it's something
that all God's people can do, can't they? See,
the key is not to discern, oh, do I have the
gift of prophecy? It's to get on with lovingly
building up the church. That's what you're meant
to be doing. That's what we're meant to be doing.
I love how the ESV translated in verse 12. Here's
what it says. So with yourselves, since you are
eager for manifestations of the Spirit. Strive
to excel in building up the church. Do you see
what he's saying? Do you want to have a spiritual
experience? Like I mean it, do you want to have
a spiritual experience? Build up the church.
That's a spiritual experience. Build up the church.
How? Point people to the comfort, the joy, the
grace of the Lord Jesus. That's the mindset that
Christians should have every time they come to
church. We should look around and go, is there
someone over there who I can meet with and have
a one -to -one with because they're really struggling?
Is there someone who's sad or lonely that maybe
I could just go talk to this morning? and encourage
them by pointing them to Jesus? Is there someone
I can go and say, wow, I'm so thankful to God
for the great ministry you're doing here? That's
building the church, isn't it? Being spiritual
is about construction. It's about building up
one another. It's about growing the church. But
in order to do that, There's some spiritual engineering
principles that we need to have in place. So
all the engineers, this is your time to shine,
okay? Here's our next point. Spiritual people
strive to build the church, but how are they
going to do it? Well, we speak intelligible words.
We speak intelligible words. Now, Paul uses the
metaphors of musical instruments. You can't really
play in a band if you don't know what each notes
are and you've got to understand all of that.
The bugle in the war, you can't know when to
retreat or when to attack if you don't have distinctive
sounds. And even different human languages. How
can I understand you and you understand me if
we don't have distinctive sounds and we understand
what those sounds mean? We can't get understandable
meaning. if we don't have distinctive communication.
And it's the same in church. And it's not just
for the Christian, it's the same for the outsider
as well. Look with me at verses 20 to 25. Paul
says there, brothers and sisters, stop thinking
like children. In regard to evil, be infants.
You know, that's where you want to be childish
when it comes to evil. But in your thinking,
be adults. And here's what it looks like to think
like an adult. In the law, it is written with
other tongues and through the lips of foreigners,
I will speak to this people, but even then they
will not listen to me, says the Lord. That was
our Isaiah 28 reading. Tongues then are a sign
not for believers, but for unbelievers. Prophecy,
however, is not for unbelievers but for believers.
So if the whole church comes together and everyone
speaks in tongues and inquirers or unbelievers
come in, will they not say that you are out of
your mind? You're crazy. But if an unbeliever
or an inquirer comes in while everyone's prophesying,
They're convicted of sin and are brought under
judgment by all as the secrets of their hearts
are laid bare. So they'll fall down and worship
God, exclaiming, God is really among you. Now,
I remember reading this passage for years and
going, huh? What is he talking about? They're
a sign not for believers, but for unbelievers.
And then someone said something that just made
the whole thing click for me. Not all signs are
positive. Not all signs are positive. This is
a negative sign. The tongues are a sign, a negative
sign for unbelievers. They're a sign of defeat
and exclusion. In my teens, I read a book, Tomorrow
When The War Began. Anyone else read John Marsden?
Yeah. I think I had to read it, so I didn't enjoy
it as much. That's what happens with school books.
But, you know, it's all about these teenagers.
They're returning from a camping trip and they
find that Australia has been invaded by some
nearby country. Now, imagine that you were them.
You've come back from this camping trip and you
look around and there's foreigners everywhere.
They've invaded your country, your home. And
they're all speaking in their own tongue. You've
got no idea what they're saying. You can't understand
what's going on. That's a sign. That's a sign
that your people have been defeated. That's a
sign that you're on the outer. That's what unintelligible
words signify in the church. It was a sign of
judgment to Israel and Judah, and it's a sign
of judgment when anyone comes into church and
they don't understand what's going on. They feel
left out. They feel so left out they go, you
guys are crazy. What are you doing? But if at
church the gospel is preached, prayed about,
sung about, Applied, it's clear, it's understandable.
That's powerful, isn't it? That convicts believers
and unbelievers of their sin. That even takes
unbelievers so that they go from sceptics to
worshippers of Jesus. Wow, I didn't think I was
a sinner. I didn't think that Jesus is Lord and
Saviour and the God of the universe. But that's
what happens when the gospel is applied to people.
And if you're not yet a believer, I hope that
you will have that experience here at Northern
Hope, and I hope that you'll keep coming until
you do, until you see how glorious Jesus is.
But this gospel power is muted. if no one understands
what is said. Go to a charismatic or a Pentecostal
church. Watch them speak in tongues. If there's
no translation, how can that help you? That's
not a sign of spiritual maturity or depth. It's
actually the opposite, isn't it? Go to a Catholic
church. Where the service is in Latin. Oh, that
feels very spiritual, doesn't it? Sacred. No.
That's going right against what Paul says. It's
not intelligible. Gospel words clearly spoken
so that people understand them, that is spiritual.
Because spirituality is about truth. It's about
the truth of the Lord Jesus. And that's why it's
so crucial here. When we're preaching from the
front, leading a service, praying, whatever we're
doing from the front, singing songs, what have
we got to do? Let's make sure we don't use Christianese.
I'm glad we're all here and we're speaking in
a language we can understand, but sometimes we
can make it confusing for people. So if we're
going to use Christianese, hey, guys, let me
tell you about propitiation, you know, we explain
it. Don't we? We want to make our services as
intelligible and clear and understandable as
we possibly can. There's a great rule that I
heard someone say once. It's the 90 -13 rule.
Have you heard that one? The 90 -13 rule in church,
that 90 % of what is said should be understood
by a 13 -year -old. That's being clear. That's
when the spirit is at work through the gospel.
But being clear is not all that we need to do.
Here's the next thing we need to do. Here's our
next engineering principle. Seek ordered gatherings.
Seek ordered gatherings. It goes so against what
people think of spirituality today, isn't it?
It's not this transcendent, chaotic experience.
And we see this in verse 33. This is how God's
people do it. They reflect their God. Now, why
does he say God's a God of order? Well, think
back to Genesis 1. Do you remember Genesis 1?
In the beginning, God created the heavens and
the earth. The earth was without form and void,
and darkness was over the face of the deep. That
is chaos. There's no form. It's void. It's everywhere.
It's dark. It's chaotic. And the Spirit of God
was hovering over the face of the waters, and
God said, let there be. And we have God. making
light we have God making everything God brought
chaos into order that's what God does actually
it's so intense when you read Genesis 1 isn't
it he made everything in a seven -day structure
and it's all with a backdrop you know the the
backdrop is the sky and the waters and the other
they're all made and then he fills them like
there's such a structure to how God does it He's
ordered. And we also see the word. It's his word
that creates order. The spirit's there hovering
over the waters. It's the word and the spirit
working together to create order. Now, let's
imagine a church service where everyone's talking
at once, where it's more like preschool than
church. Everyone's talking at once. No one's
taking turns. They're talking over each other.
Ask yourself, does that reflect the God of peace?
No. Because it can't build anyone up, can it?
When it's just chaotic like that. So Paul exhorts
the Corinthians and asks and he says, you want
to be spiritual? Be ordered. Speak one at a time.
And if there's tongues, make sure you've got
an interpreter. And cap the speakers at two to
three so that you don't overwhelm everybody.
You know, like you get to speaker number 27 and
you're going, okay, can I go home yet? And he
says, weigh what is said. And then we get that
controversial bit that the women need to remain
silent in church. Now, what's he mean by that?
We need to be careful here. He can't mean that
women be totally silent in church. You know,
Paul's not there going, okay, Bethany spoke.
That's it. You're in trouble. Actually, Paul
says earlier in chapter 11 that women are to
pray and prophesy in church. So it can't be saying
women can't say a word, literally. What's going
on in the context? Well, he's just been talking
about weighing up the prophecies. That's what
he's talking about here. They're not to be a
part of that weighing up process. So he's not
devaluing them. He's actually trying to point
everyone back to how things were meant to be
in Genesis 1. See, do you remember in Genesis?
Man and woman, they're both created in God's
image. They're of equal value. They've got different
roles, but they're of equal value. That's something
our society gets so messed up, doesn't it? We
think your worth, your value is dependent on
what your role is. If I've got more power than
you, I must be more valuable than you. And Paul's
saying, no, it doesn't work like that. They have
equal value. They're both in God's image. Jesus
died for men and women equally. But there's different
roles. There's hierarchy in families. And the
church is a church family, and it must reflect
that to support other families of believers.
So think back to Genesis. Here we've got the
hierarchy of authority, not value, in Genesis
1 and 2. Here's how God did it. He said, you
know, God made the man and the woman from the
man and gave them authority over the animals,
right? And that's why they go around naming all
the animals. But then what happens when the serpent
comes? It all gets flipped, doesn't it? The serpent,
who is an animal, then leads the woman, and the
woman then leads the man. And then what happens?
Where's God in that? Well, he's just not even
in the picture because they don't want to listen
to him. They're listening to the serpent now.
Everything gets flipped. And it becomes chaotic.
So what's this mean for us? You know, what do
we do understand with this? Well, Laura's gone
on holiday today with Jake on the Gold Coast,
so I can't use her as a sermon prop today. But
imagine she was here, if she was sitting right
here up the front, and if throughout my sermon
today she yelled, oh, that is so wrong, or, oh.
I don't think he meant to say that, you know.
That would undermine my sermon, wouldn't it?
Or if people were talking about my sermon after
church and she was going there, you know, yeah,
I don't think you really nailed that one. That
would undermine my leadership, undermine my example,
undermine everything. That would not build up
the church. which is what Paul's getting at here,
that would undermine the building of the church.
It would kind of divide things and cause chaos.
Paul is saying that men and women are equally
valuable, but there are different roles. And
that's why he says for the women to ask their
husbands at home, if it's single, it's different,
but if you're married, Ask your husband at home
because he's saying we want to promote order.
We want to promote order that men be men and
lead as men should. Now, how's this play out
for us as a church? Well, actually, before I
get to that, can I just say, if that is something
that's a struggle for you, I get this is hard.
Please come and have a chat with me. I get it's
hard and it's hard because men so often suck
at leading properly. So if this is a struggle,
please come and talk to me about it. It can be
awful, but please come and have a chat. Don't
just let it simmer. But how does this play out
for us as a church family? Well, a lot of this,
I think, we do do well. We talk one at a time.
There's the odd little heckling that Trevor used
to do and I do. But most of the time we're one
at a time and our services are sharp. We haven't
got 27 preachers, which is great, all at once.
But there's a subtle yet important challenge
here to husbands and wives that I think we do
need to take on board. Husbands, are you growing
in your love and understanding of God's word?
Because you can't lead your wife well. If you're
not. You can't lead others if you can't lead
yourself. You can't answer your wife's questions
if you haven't done some thinking on your own.
Now, not that you get it right all the time or
know all the answers, but it's a good thing to
be a person who's deep in their spiritual maturity.
Because as a husband, what's your job? It's to
build up your wife, isn't it? As Ephesians 5
says, it's to present her before Christ, blameless
on the day that he returns. So build up your
wife. Husbands, are you emotionally safe? If
your wife comes and asks you something about
Christianity, do you go, oh, I don't know, you
know, I'm busy right now? Can you be emotionally
safe with her and talk with her calmly? Can you
lead her well? And wives, are you respecting
your husbands? If you're both at church, what
happens on the car ride home? Do you ever ask
your husband questions or discuss the sermon?
Hey, sweetheart, what did you think about today's
sermon? I know Brendan's hair needs work, but
what did you think about what he was saying?
I didn't understand that bit. Are you raising
things? Are you talking to him? Letting him have
the opportunity to lead you like that. Are you
doing things in your marriage where you're undermining
his leadership? Stepping in where you really
need to hold back. All right, well, let's recap.
Let's recap where we've been. We asked today,
what is being spiritual about? We saw in the
last few weeks it's about belonging to the Lord
Jesus. It's about love. Today we saw it's about
construction. It's about building. It's about
growth, both reinforcing what exists and adding
to it by bringing new people in. We're not just
building up. We're building out. Spiritual people
strive to build the church, build up, build out.
Spiritual people speak intelligible words. They
speak clearly. The truth, the gospel truth, clearly.
And we seek ordered gatherings. What is spiritual
being about? Next time you play word association,
one word that should jump into your head. No,
it's not there. Well, there you go. Here's the
big idea. Building the body of Christ is crucial
to being spiritual. That's what being spiritual
is about. It's about building. Or putting it
another way, it's all about being centred on
the love and lordship of Jesus. It's making Christ
clear to people. It's removing obstacles that
mute, distort or dishonour Christ because that's
what builds the church, isn't it? That's when
the spirit is at work. So Christians who are
here today, are you being spiritual? Are you
here on Sunday speaking to one another, serving
one another? Have you signed up to a growth group
so that you can do that throughout the week?
Are you inviting non -Christians to church? These
are spiritual things to be doing. And if you're
not yet a Christian, have you seen the glory
of Jesus? Have you seen how great it is to know
him and love him? Please keep coming until you
do. It will change not only your life but your
eternity if you do. But let me close with this.
Imagine if every regular, when we walk through
that door each Sunday morning, imagine if they
came to church with their construction radar
on. Scanning the room for opportunities. Who
could I build up this week? What way could I
serve someone else this week? Or serve today,
just even informally? Who could I invite? Is
there a new person I could talk to today? I know
I want to talk to my friends, but I'll get to
them. I'm going to talk to that new person who's
sitting on their own. Imagine if we all came
to church with that construction radar on. Jen
would be happy. Rosters would be easier to fill.
Less people would slip through the cracks. There'd
be a magnetic love about how we do church, wouldn't
there? I think we've got a lot of that. But let's
pray for more of it. Let's all strive to do that
because that's the sort of church I want to go
to and actually that's the sort of church that
can have a huge impact on any city. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for the
Lord Jesus. We thank you for the message of the
cross that all our sins All our sins have been
paid for by him. We thank you that through his
mighty resurrection, Jesus is Lord of all. Father,
we know the truth of the gospel is what builds
your church. And we ask, Father, that you would
help us to share that good news every week here
from the pulpit, in the conversations we have.
in the way we pray, in the way we sing, in all
that we do, please may it be centred on the lordship
and love of the Lord Jesus. And please, Father,
help us to be a spiritual church because we are
striving to build the body of Christ. Help us
with these things, Father. We can't do it on
our own. We need your help. We bring these things
before you now. In Jesus' name, amen.