1 Corinthians 14:1-12

January 27, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

Download the bulletin.

Download the Kid’s Korner.

The sermon starts at 16:10 in the audio file.

Or, The Distinctive Note of Congregational Worship

Jesus said that He would build His church. Jesus had asked His disciples what people were saying about Him; who did they think He was? Peter replied that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Then Jesus credited His Father in heaven for revealing this to Peter, and followed it with this great declaration:

On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)

One drum to beat in the second phrase is that the “gates of hell” are defensive; the church is on offense against hellish unbelief and rebellion. Another drum to beat in the first phrase is that Jesus is the subject of the action and the church is the object, meaning that Jesus builds, the church is being built by Him. We believe that this is true because Jesus said it, so it’s not our worry to make the church what it’s supposed to be. Much man-centered ministry which aims to attract and appease men would stop if we took this to heart.

That said, Paul uses the same language of building the church and says that it is a work of the church. In Ephesians 4, God gave church leaders to equip the saints for “building up the body” and when “each part is working properly” the body “builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:12-16). This church body building effort is also the theme of 1 Corinthians 14. And it’s interesting, there is a connection between a man-centered focus as the opposite of building the body, while a focus on right worship is what does the best building.

Part of me has been dreading this chapter. It’s not as much that I’m anxious about holding an unpopular interpretation about tongues and prophecy but rather that the interpretation is challenging. While there is still more work to do, what I’ve realized is that, rather than avoid it, this would have been the perfect passage to teach through years ago for sake of our congregational worship. In particular, there may be no better text in the Bible to explain and exhort the worship of the assembly, of each and every part of the body, rather than to see corporate worship as an individualistic experience, let alone to cater to a consumer minded audience. The teaching about head coverings (chapter 10) was surprisingly applicable without requiring that women wear head coverings today, and there is similar relevance here.

We’re back to the topic of spiritual gifts. Paul started talking spiritual gifts in chapter 12, and ended chapter 12 with “earnestly desire the higher gifts.” Chapter 14 begins with, “earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.” In between, obviously, is the lovely 13, about the exercise of gifts in love. No love? Then there is no help, no profit, no nothing. With love something happens to the body. And this is what we should covet.

As Christians there are only so many things we’re allowed to covet. The tenth of the 10 Commandments prohibits us from coveting our neighbor’s goods, but it does not prohibit coveting good for our neighbor. We’re (apparently) allowed to covet prayers. And in chapter 14, believers are to covet a building, that is, not the noun (a building with walls), nor the building up of themselves, but the building of the whole body.

The chapter has two emphasis: 1) otherly worship (verses 1-26) and 2) orderly worship (verses 26-40). We’ll start with the first part of worship focused on others in the congregation and we’ll see the importance of consolation and clarity.

Building by Consolation (verses 1-5)

Paul hasn’t specified it yet, but since the start of chapter 12 he’s been aiming to knock down (but maybe not out) the gift of tongue[...]