SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to the Sermon Podcast of Mission Hills Church, located in San Marcos, California.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that this message blesses you and your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verses 1 through 40.
SPEAKER_01: Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
SPEAKER_01: For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God.
SPEAKER_01: For no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.
SPEAKER_01: The one who speaks in a tongue builds himself up, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy.
SPEAKER_01: The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.
SPEAKER_01: Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?
SPEAKER_01: If even lifeless instruments such as the flute or the harp do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played?
SPEAKER_01: And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for the battle?
SPEAKER_01: So with yourselves, if your tongue, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said?
SPEAKER_01: For you will be speaking into the air.
SPEAKER_01: There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning.
SPEAKER_01: But if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker a foreigner to me.
SPEAKER_01: So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.
SPEAKER_01: For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
SPEAKER_01: What am I to do?
SPEAKER_01: I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also.
SPEAKER_01: I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say amen to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?
SPEAKER_01: For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up.
SPEAKER_01: I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.
SPEAKER_01: Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers, do not be children in your thinking, be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
SPEAKER_01: In the law it is written, by people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Thus tongues are a sign not for believers, but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers, but for believers.
SPEAKER_01: If therefore the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say you are out of your minds?
SPEAKER_01: But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or an outsider enters, he is convicted by all.
SPEAKER_01: Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: But God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.
SPEAKER_01: As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but they should be in submission, as the law also says.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Or was it from you that the word of God came?
SPEAKER_01: Or are you the only one it has reached?
SPEAKER_01: If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.
SPEAKER_01: So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.
SPEAKER_01: But all things should be done decently and in order.
SPEAKER_01: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Well, before we get to the text itself, um, sometimes when you preach through the Bible, sometimes what can happen is you lose the forest through the trees.
SPEAKER_02: As you preach different texts, every different text is addressing some various issue or topic or story, and we can sometimes miss the big picture of the Bible, the big story of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: And one of the things that I want to be sure of this morning is that you hear the big story, the big picture of the Bible, especially if you are a visitor or a guest with us.
SPEAKER_02: And this big picture or big story of the Bible is summed up in one really short word: Gospel.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel is the short, big picture of the story of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: And the gospel is basically this.
SPEAKER_02: For those of you who are guests with us or visiting with us, or maybe you don't know the Bible this that well, it's basically this: Jesus died on a cross.
SPEAKER_02: He died on a cross to secure the forgiveness of all of your sins, past, present, and future.
SPEAKER_02: He was buried in a tomb three days later, he rose from the dead, and his resurrection secured for you right relationship with God, that you can stand before God and enter into a right relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: A relationship of love and intimacy and joy.
SPEAKER_02: All of this secured by Jesus' death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: And we believe as Christians that what it means to be a Christian is to place our faith in Jesus, in his death for our sins and his resurrection from the dead to restore us to God.
SPEAKER_02: That's what it means to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: And it's my heartfelt prayer and the prayer of many in this church that if you don't have that relationship with God, if you are estranged or distant or have a broken relationship with God, that this morning would be the day that you place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you come to Him and you place your trust in what Jesus has done for you.
SPEAKER_02: If that is something that you want to do this morning, we have these connection cards here.
SPEAKER_02: And there's a little box on the left-hand side that says faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And just put your name, contact information, because we want to reach out to you and follow up with you about that.
SPEAKER_02: And if you want to place your faith in Jesus today, after the service, we're gonna pray with you and lead you in a prayer of what that means to begin a relationship with God through faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: If you're here this morning and you are a follower of Jesus, here's what the gospel means for you.
SPEAKER_02: It is a regular reminder.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus' death on the cross to forgive your sins and his resurrection from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: It is a regular reminder of this very simple but profound truth.
SPEAKER_02: God is not distant from your troubles, from your sorrows, from your hardships, from your failures, from your sins.
SPEAKER_02: But that through the cross of Jesus, God has drawn near to you.
SPEAKER_02: And ultimately the resurrection of Jesus, here's what it speaks to all of you who are believers here today.
SPEAKER_02: It speaks that that hardship, that sorrow, that trouble, that heartache, that failure, that sin in your life, it doesn't have the last word.
SPEAKER_02: Death never has the last word in God's kingdom, but life does through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Amen?
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: All right, let's jump into our text this morning.
SPEAKER_02: That big story, the gospel, it shapes everything else that's said inside the Bible, including our passage this morning.
SPEAKER_02: And this passage, I don't know if you felt or sensed the irony of having Dawn read a passage that says women are not supposed to speak in church.
SPEAKER_02: Did anybody feel that?
SPEAKER_02: Like, okay.
SPEAKER_02: I just want to acknowledge that that freaked some of us out.
SPEAKER_02: Now, some of you, that just made you feel uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you've read this passage before and you're just like, oh, I just hope I never read that again.
SPEAKER_02: That's weird.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what to do with it.
SPEAKER_02: Others of you, it just confirms what you already believe about the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible is misogynistic, it's patriarchal, it has a kind of a hatred towards women and mistreats women.
SPEAKER_02: It's a tool or an instrument of oppression, it's a book that causes great offense when we read passages like this.
SPEAKER_02: Well, my modest hope this morning, my modest hope is to help show us what these verses mean in their context.
SPEAKER_02: In their context.
SPEAKER_02: Now, there are a lot of very fascinating, very interesting things in 1 Corinthians 14.
SPEAKER_02: Things which we could spend a long time talking about.
SPEAKER_02: Things like the gift of tongues.
SPEAKER_02: What is that?
SPEAKER_02: What's going on?
SPEAKER_02: How does that work?
SPEAKER_02: Should we still do it?
SPEAKER_02: Anybody ever wondered that before?
SPEAKER_02: The gift of prophecy.
SPEAKER_02: What is that?
SPEAKER_02: What's prophecy?
SPEAKER_02: How does it work?
SPEAKER_02: Does that still happen today?
SPEAKER_02: Very, very interesting questions.
SPEAKER_02: But I'm not going to answer them today.
SPEAKER_02: If you want more information about that, please reach out to me.
SPEAKER_02: I'd love to correspond with you about that.
SPEAKER_02: But what we're going to focus our attention on are these verses in verse 33, 34, and 35 that speak about women.
SPEAKER_02: And what we're going to do is we're actually going to read the whole text together.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to work through the whole text to help us understand what on earth the Apostle Paul is talking about here.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to do this for one, or maybe a couple reasons.
SPEAKER_02: One is to help us all become good students of Scripture, to learn how to read Scripture for ourselves, because when you read through the Bible, you're going to come across strange passages in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you have read the Bible and come across something and you're like, what was that?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: These are what are called stumbling blocks.
SPEAKER_02: You trip up on it and you're like, I don't know what's going on here.
SPEAKER_02: And so I want to help us as a church to become good students of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: When you face a stumbling block, a strange passage in the Bible that you don't know what to do with, there's a way to engage it that helps bring greater understanding and clarity.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't solve every problem or every challenge, but it does solve a lot of them.
SPEAKER_02: So I want to help us do that.
SPEAKER_02: But I also want to speak to these verses because I think right now in the culture that we live in, verses like this, passages like this are reasons why non-believers, non-Christians look at the Bible and they think, this is ridiculous.
SPEAKER_02: Why would we ever sign up for this?
SPEAKER_02: And I want to help set explain these verses so they make sense to a world that is looking at us and wondering, why do you guys think and believe and practice the things that you do?
SPEAKER_02: So, with that being said, let's jump into the broader context of 1 Corinthians 14.
SPEAKER_02: We need to kind of set some of the context so we understand these passages.
SPEAKER_02: If you remember broadly, the the the book, the book or the letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthians is in five basic sections.
SPEAKER_02: And we're in the fourth section of this letter that starts in chapter 11 and goes all the way to chapter 14, this chapter that we're in today.
SPEAKER_02: And what the Apostle Paul's addressing is addressing issues that have come up in the gathered worship of God's people.
SPEAKER_02: So this text is kind of what is set within this broader context.
SPEAKER_02: And one of the major themes that we've seen so far as we've walked through 1 Corinthians is that Paul is addressing in the church in Corinth issues of spiritual immaturity and spiritual pride.
SPEAKER_02: Look with me, if you flip back in your Bibles, back to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_02: If you look with me, the Apostle Paul says it very, very clearly in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 1.
SPEAKER_02: He says this, but I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as what?
SPEAKER_02: Infants in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: These people, they've been Christians for some time now, but they are going through something called arrested development.
SPEAKER_02: They're not growing up in their faith.
SPEAKER_02: They're not maturing.
SPEAKER_02: They're still acting as if they're more like non-Christians than they are like Christians.
SPEAKER_02: They're immature in their faith.
SPEAKER_02: And that immaturity is seen specifically in the pride that is afflicting and affecting the whole church.
SPEAKER_02: Look with me in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 6.
SPEAKER_02: Paul says this I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against the other.
SPEAKER_02: There were several Christians in the church that were puffed up, they were full of hot air, they were boasting, they were proud, they were arrogant, and it was causing all kinds of issues in the church, and issues that we've seen in every section of this letter so far.
SPEAKER_02: So spiritual immaturity and spiritual pride were afflicting the church in Corinth.
SPEAKER_02: And this, we've seen this in how it shows up in the gathered worship of God's people in Corinth.
SPEAKER_02: We've seen how it's affected the use of head coverings in chapter 11.
SPEAKER_02: A very fascinating and strange passage in chapter 11.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to go back and listen to how spiritual pride was showing up in that, you can go back and listen to that message on July 19th.
SPEAKER_02: Showing up at the Lord's table, what we preached on last week, spiritual pride and elitism that was causing the poor to be excluded from the celebration of communion.
SPEAKER_02: The use of spiritual gifts in chapters 12 and 13 and 14, in particular, the gift of tongues, that the church in Corinth had privileged the gift of tongues, saying that if you had the gift of tongues, that you were the most mature Christian.
SPEAKER_02: And so it was a way they kind of, in the worship services of the church, there were lots of people using the gift of tongues as a way of kind of showing off and demonstrating how spiritual they really were.
SPEAKER_02: And the Apostle Paul is going to warn them in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 that this use of the gift of tongues is an improper use.
SPEAKER_02: And not only that, but it's not the most important gift.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, he places it at the bottom of all the gifts in terms of significance.
SPEAKER_02: And so Paul, in light of all of this, comes to chapter 13, the chapter right before this.
SPEAKER_02: And he's telling the church in your gathered worship, what is to prevail is not competition, is not performance, is not pride, but love.
SPEAKER_02: Love is the mark of spiritual maturity.
SPEAKER_02: Love is the mark of the gathered worship of God's people.
SPEAKER_02: This is what you ought to have.
SPEAKER_02: And he'll say things like this, look, you can pray in the tongues of men and angels, but you if you have not love, you're what?
SPEAKER_02: You're nothing, you're just making noise.
SPEAKER_02: Love is the primary gift that Paul is after for the gathered worship of God's people.
SPEAKER_02: This is what it looks like to be mature.
SPEAKER_02: And we're going to see how that insight is going to show up in chapter 14 as he returns in chapter 14 to the gifts of prophecy and tongues specifically.
SPEAKER_02: Now, in chapter 14, we get a sense of what's going on here as you read through the entire text.
SPEAKER_02: Basically, what's going on in Corinth is that their worship gatherings had turned into chaotic, disordered, disordered rivalries in the worship.
SPEAKER_02: Spiritual gifts were being used and twisted into forms of performance, gestures of superior status, and in particular, superior spiritual status.
SPEAKER_02: What was going on in the worship services is everybody or many people were speaking in tongues all at once.
SPEAKER_02: Then there were other people, prophets, who were speaking on behalf of God, and what they were saying wasn't being tested or weighed.
SPEAKER_02: And what that basically meant was some people were showing up and saying, God told me such and such and such, but nobody was testing it and weighing it.
SPEAKER_02: And so they could have been speaking for God, but they could have just been speaking for themselves.
SPEAKER_02: And people were getting confused, it was disorganized, it was chaotic.
SPEAKER_02: And all of this was rooted in spiritual pride because everybody was attempting to outdo one another, to show, to prove to one another how spiritual I am by how well or how fluently or how loudly I speak in tongues or how great my prophecy is.
SPEAKER_02: And it was causing chaos in the worship services.
SPEAKER_02: Tongues being spoken all at once, interrupting one another.
SPEAKER_02: Prophecy was left unchecked and untested, claiming something was from God, even at times when it wasn't.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul is very concerned about this.
SPEAKER_02: And so he writes chapter 14, and he's going to give an illustration of what's going on in Corinth to help them understand it.
SPEAKER_02: We see it in chapter 14, beginning in verse 6.
SPEAKER_02: He says this, Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?
SPEAKER_02: If even lifeless instruments such as the flute or the harp do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played?
SPEAKER_02: And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?
SPEAKER_02: So, with yourselves.
SPEAKER_02: If with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said?
SPEAKER_02: You will be speaking into the air.
SPEAKER_02: So Paul gives this illustration of musical instruments.
SPEAKER_02: And something like this is going on in Corinth.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you have ever been to some kind of symphony or orchestra performance?
SPEAKER_02: And how many of you have shown up early to that performance?
SPEAKER_02: And what do you hear when you show up early to the orchestra performance?
SPEAKER_02: They're warming up, and what does it sound like?
SPEAKER_02: Awful.
SPEAKER_02: It's terrible, right?
SPEAKER_02: You're wondering, what did I get myself into if this is what they sound like?
SPEAKER_02: But all they're doing is warming up their instruments, right?
SPEAKER_02: And they're all playing different notes at different times, and it's totally chaotic.
SPEAKER_02: This is what the worship in Corinth was like.
SPEAKER_02: It was like the warm-up of an orchestra.
SPEAKER_02: They weren't playing distinct notes, they weren't playing in order, there was no organization to it, so instead of sounding like a symphony, they sounded like a total mess.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul wants the worship of the church to sound more like a symphony than he does a chaotic and disordered mess.
SPEAKER_02: The effect of this, the effect of this was twofold in the church as they gathered in worship.
SPEAKER_02: Confusion and barriers to faith.
SPEAKER_02: Those are the two effects that are happening.
SPEAKER_02: People were confused about what was going on, and it was creating barriers for outsiders to come to faith in the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Look with me at verse 9.
SPEAKER_02: This is what Paul says.
SPEAKER_02: So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said?
SPEAKER_02: How will anyone you won't know what's going on?
SPEAKER_02: He goes on to say that if you give thanks in a tongue but nobody understands what you're saying, they can't say amen to that.
SPEAKER_02: They can't agree with what you're giving.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for because they don't know, they don't understand what's going on.
SPEAKER_02: It's incredibly confusing.
SPEAKER_02: And so these worship services were causing great confusion in the church.
SPEAKER_02: But not only that, when outsiders, unbelievers, non-Christians would come to the gathered worship of God's people, because of the chaos, because of the confusion, it was turning people away from the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_02: The Apostle Paul says it this way in verse 24 and 25.
SPEAKER_02: Look with me here.
SPEAKER_02: He says, But if I all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all and he is called to account by all.
SPEAKER_02: The secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
SPEAKER_02: Here he's speaking specifically about the gift of prophecy.
SPEAKER_02: And he's saying that if you're speaking in an intelligible way, in an understandable and organized way, a person will hear it and be struck by the presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: The secrets of his heart will be disclosed.
SPEAKER_02: That intelligibility, that understandability of the gospel will be directed toward their heart and they will come to what Paul calls conviction.
SPEAKER_02: They will feel that pierce of their heart that God is real and he is among this people.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, and they will fall on their face.
SPEAKER_02: Paul's concern is that instead of that happening, people are being turned away because they have no idea what's going on in the worship of the church.
SPEAKER_02: And so Paul is going to give them counsel.
SPEAKER_02: He's going to tell the church in Corinth, here's what I want you to do in light of this.
SPEAKER_02: Here's how I want you to conduct yourselves.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to conduct yourselves in two basic ways: orderly and decently.
SPEAKER_02: Orderly, your worship needs to be orderly and it needs to be decent.
SPEAKER_02: Look with me at verse 40 of chapter 14.
SPEAKER_02: Paul says it very clearly.
SPEAKER_02: But all things should be done what?
SPEAKER_02: Decently and in order.
SPEAKER_02: These are his basic conditions of worship.
SPEAKER_02: And he explains actually what this decent and orderly worship ought to look like there starting in verse 26.
SPEAKER_02: What then, brothers, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.
SPEAKER_02: Let all things be done for building up.
SPEAKER_02: If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two, or at most three, and each in turn.
SPEAKER_02: And let someone interpret so you can understand what's going on.
SPEAKER_02: But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.
SPEAKER_02: Let two or three prophets speak, so another, again, the same basic principle, two or three speak, and let the others weigh what is said.
SPEAKER_02: He continues, verse 30, if a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent.
SPEAKER_02: Instead of competing with one another to be heard, instead of interrupting one another in worship, wait, be patient, listen to one another, interpret things, seek to weigh things and test things.
SPEAKER_02: This is what orderly and decent worship looks like for the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_02: So this is the broader context that leads us into our text in question in verses 33 through 35.
SPEAKER_02: So, what I want to do moving forward is I want to look at some key words in our text, some key words that show up here and how they are used.
SPEAKER_02: Because it's really important how a word is used, is to the best way to figure out the meaning of a word is to look at how it's used in the closest context around it.
SPEAKER_02: And what we're going to discover is that there are four words, four words in verses 33 through 35 that show up right beforehand, in starting in verse 26, leading to verse 32.
SPEAKER_02: Four words that are critical to understand when we look at verses 33 through 35.
SPEAKER_02: So let me read verses 33 through 35 real quick.
SPEAKER_02: 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 church, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission.
SPEAKER_02: For as the law also says, and if there is anyone anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, four words in that text that I want to draw our attention to.
SPEAKER_02: The first is the word speak.
SPEAKER_02: I do not permit a woman to speak.
SPEAKER_02: The second is let the women be silent.
SPEAKER_02: Speak, be silent there in verse 28.
SPEAKER_02: The next word is the word submit in verse 32.
SPEAKER_02: And the last word is found there in verse 31, the word learn.
SPEAKER_02: So speak, be silent, submit, and learn.
SPEAKER_02: Four key words.
SPEAKER_02: But I want to go right back in our context to the previous few verses because we're going to see the Apostle Paul actually use these four words in a different context as he's addressing the entire church.
SPEAKER_02: Starting in verse 26, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation, let all things be done for the building up.
SPEAKER_02: If any, speak in a tongue.
SPEAKER_02: And what he's referencing is what he's just talked about, starting in verse 1 and all the way leading up to verse 25, that their speech was disruptive, interruptive speech.
SPEAKER_02: That's the kind of speech he's talking about.
SPEAKER_02: If this kind of speaking is going on in the church, this disruptive, interruptive, prideful, arrogant, competitive speech, rivalries happening, if that's the kind of speech that's happening, it needs to stop.
SPEAKER_02: That's what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_02: Second is the word be silent there in verse 28.
SPEAKER_02: We can see in the context, if there is one to and no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in the church and speak to himself and to God.
SPEAKER_02: Let two or three prophets speak and let the others weigh what is said.
SPEAKER_02: If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first do what?
SPEAKER_02: Be silent.
SPEAKER_02: The silence here in the context is orderly and patient listening.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, you're not fighting for platform time, you're not jocking for and competing to be heard with your tongue or your prophecy, but you're being silent and patiently waiting for another to speak and to be finished.
SPEAKER_02: The third word, submit.
SPEAKER_02: Notice there what he says that in verse 34, they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission.
SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't, interestingly here in the original language, that be in submission, it has no object that it's referencing.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, it doesn't necessarily reference the husband being in submission to the husband.
SPEAKER_02: There's other texts that talk about that.
SPEAKER_02: But here, being in submission actually refers back to what he said in verse 32.
SPEAKER_02: Look up there with me at verse 32.
SPEAKER_02: And the spirits of the prophets are what?
SPEAKER_02: Subject to or submitted to the prophets.
SPEAKER_02: It's the same word in the original language.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, in worship, everyone who's speaking is to be subject to one another.
SPEAKER_02: You can't just speak of your own authority.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, you have to be subject to the order of the service itself.
SPEAKER_02: What Paul said, let two or three speak, let two or in tongues, or let two or three speak in prophecy.
SPEAKER_02: You have to be subject to that order and subject to the testing of what has been said.
SPEAKER_02: You can't just say whatever you want and expect that people are going to think that that's from God.
SPEAKER_02: It has to be weighed, it has to be tested.
SPEAKER_02: The last word is the word learn.
SPEAKER_02: There in verse 31.
SPEAKER_02: He says, I wish you could all prophesy one by one so that all may learn and all be encouraged, that all would learn and be encouraged.
SPEAKER_02: That the learning is a form of encouragement, or to use his word that he uses five different times in this text, to be built up.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so those four words speak, be silent, submit, and learn.
SPEAKER_02: Now, already in this text, we're beginning to see some things come very clear.
SPEAKER_02: Paul is not prohibiting all speech, but a certain kind of speech.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_02: He's not saying women should never talk in church, ever, ever, ever.
SPEAKER_02: That's not what he's saying.
SPEAKER_02: He's saying there's a specific kind of speech that I am prohibiting.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, Paul is not saying, contrary to some who hate texts like this, that Paul is just saying the women should shut up and go home.
SPEAKER_02: That's not what he's saying.
SPEAKER_02: He's saying there's a certain kind of speech that I'm not allowing them to use in the church.
SPEAKER_02: He is telling them, I want you to be subject to the order of the church so that the worship is orderly, orderly, and decent.
SPEAKER_02: So, with that in mind, we also need to notice a couple other things.
SPEAKER_02: If Paul here were saying women should never speak in the church ever, ever, ever, he would be baldly contradicting himself.
SPEAKER_02: 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 4.
SPEAKER_02: He says that in worship women pray and prophesy.
SPEAKER_02: Praying is praying in tongues.
SPEAKER_02: So we know that Paul is affirming when they are in worship, they are doing this.
SPEAKER_02: They are praying and they are prophesying.
SPEAKER_02: And then he comes here and says, actually, just kidding, you ladies who are talking, you need to be quiet.
SPEAKER_02: He's you'd just be a bald contradiction.
SPEAKER_02: Not only that, but we need to pay close attention to the language in 1 Corinthians 14.
SPEAKER_02: Paul uses the language, inclusive language, or language that means all.
SPEAKER_02: All are included in what he's saying.
SPEAKER_02: So look with me in verse 5 of chapter 14.
SPEAKER_02: Now I want what?
SPEAKER_02: All of you to speak in tongues.
SPEAKER_02: I want everyone in the church.
SPEAKER_02: Does he mean by all, I actually meant just the men?
SPEAKER_02: Or does he mean everybody, men and women included?
SPEAKER_02: He uses this language again for us in verse 31.
SPEAKER_02: He says this, so that all may learn and all be encouraged.
SPEAKER_02: Is what Paul's saying here?
SPEAKER_02: Well, actually, I just want the men to learn and the men to be encouraged at church.
SPEAKER_02: Or is he saying, I want everybody?
SPEAKER_02: Paul is using inclusive language.
SPEAKER_02: Even the word that we have translated in the ESV as brothers, it's the Greek word that actually doesn't mean just specifically male brothers, but it means brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_02: It includes everybody.
SPEAKER_02: So Paul is using inclusive language.
SPEAKER_02: He's speaking to everyone.
SPEAKER_02: So when he's talking about if you're speaking in tongues or you're prophesying, that includes what?
SPEAKER_02: What genders?
SPEAKER_02: There's only two of them: men and women.
SPEAKER_02: They're both included.
SPEAKER_02: So what Paul is not doing is prohibiting all speech from women because he's just spent almost all of chapter 14 talking about what both men and women are speaking in church.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Last little bit of his argument.
SPEAKER_02: And then we'll try to walk away with a few takeaways.
SPEAKER_02: Two final words that I want to pay attention to in our text.
SPEAKER_02: The words women and men that he uses, starting in verse 33 and ending in verse 35.
SPEAKER_02: He uses men and women several different times.
SPEAKER_02: Now, in the original language, this is a good translation.
SPEAKER_02: These are the words that are used, men and women.
SPEAKER_02: But these words have a kind of flexible meaning.
SPEAKER_02: They can mean men and women, but they can also mean husbands and wives.
SPEAKER_02: You all with me on that?
SPEAKER_02: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02: And how do we know how Paul is using it?
SPEAKER_02: Well, look at verse 35.
SPEAKER_02: He says this if there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home.
SPEAKER_02: That word in the Greek is actually men.
SPEAKER_02: Let them ask their men.
SPEAKER_02: Ladies, if someone is described as your man and he's not your husband, you think that would be a little odd, right?
SPEAKER_02: Their men, right?
SPEAKER_02: In other words, their husbands, and let them ask them where?
SPEAKER_02: At home.
SPEAKER_02: So these are married men and women that he is addressing here.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, Paul's addressing something specific to the context between husbands and wives that was happening in the worship service.
SPEAKER_02: A certain kind of speech, a certain kind of conduct that was disruptive to the life of the church, and Paul calls it out.
SPEAKER_02: So let's put it together.
SPEAKER_02: It basically looks like this.
SPEAKER_02: Some of the wives in the church were interrupting their husbands, whether innocently or more likely through spiritual pride, signaling their spiritual status.
SPEAKER_02: And it was not only distracting in the worship service, it was disgraceful.
SPEAKER_02: Look at what Paul says there in verse 35.
SPEAKER_02: It is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
SPEAKER_02: It was embarrassing their husbands.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, what's going on here is likely this is connected to the specifically to the gift of prophecy.
SPEAKER_02: And some of the husbands were speaking up in the worship service, prophesying.
SPEAKER_02: And you know what the wife was doing?
SPEAKER_02: Correcting him in public.
SPEAKER_02: Husbands, I how would that make you feel?
SPEAKER_02: How much do you love it when your wife corrects you in public?
SPEAKER_02: All of you are like, I love it.
SPEAKER_02: It's the best.
SPEAKER_02: Honey, if you could do that all the time, that just, you know, I actually, that's actually one of the love languages.
SPEAKER_02: It's the sixth love language, being corrected in public.
SPEAKER_02: No, what's happening right?
SPEAKER_02: And this is true for all of us.
SPEAKER_02: If you get called out in public, how does that make you feel?
SPEAKER_02: Good or bad?
SPEAKER_02: Bad.
SPEAKER_02: And what's going on in these worship services is some of these wives were calling out their husbands in public.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul is saying, look, if that's gonna happen, where do you need to do it?
SPEAKER_02: Do it at home.
SPEAKER_02: Go home and have that conversation.
SPEAKER_02: Don't make it a disruption or a distraction in the worship of the church.
SPEAKER_02: Y'all with me on this?
SPEAKER_02: This making sense?
SPEAKER_02: You tracking?
SPEAKER_02: It's to use a different word, it's indecent.
SPEAKER_02: It's not showing the proper decorum, right?
SPEAKER_02: That this is not the way to treat a spouse in public.
SPEAKER_02: And so Paul says, look, you wives, if you have a concern about something your husband's saying and you want to understand it, go home and ask there.
SPEAKER_02: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: So I think this is the last of the really controversial texts in 1 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Three takeaways, Mission Hills Church.
SPEAKER_02: Three takeaways from this text today.
SPEAKER_02: The first takeaway women have a robust voice in the worship of the church.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_02: Women have a robust voice in the worship of the church.
SPEAKER_02: Paul's language throughout 1 Corinthians 14, speaking to both men and women, is all together have a role in what he says five separate times: building up the church.
SPEAKER_02: And women have a critical role in the encouragement, the strengthening, and the building up in the worship of the church.
SPEAKER_02: Paul speaks of it as revelation and knowledge and prophecy and teaching that women have this critical voice in the worship of the church that ought to be included in how the church worships.
SPEAKER_02: Let me just say this somewhat differently to you ladies here at the church.
SPEAKER_02: Ladies, go deep with God.
SPEAKER_02: Go deep with God.
SPEAKER_02: Study.
SPEAKER_02: Develop your life with Him.
SPEAKER_02: The church needs you.
SPEAKER_02: Your understanding and experience.
SPEAKER_02: Your understanding of doctrine and your deep devotion to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: The church needs that.
SPEAKER_02: It is a part of how, if we were to say women are excluded from the worship of the church, we would be lopping off half of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Actually, technically in most churches, it's about 60%.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul, his letter here is not to dissuade or discourage women from participating, it's to dissuade and discourage certain wives from embarrassing and shaming their husbands publicly.
SPEAKER_02: Now, please don't do that.
SPEAKER_02: But women, ladies, give your lives deeply to the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Study.
SPEAKER_02: Come to know Christ in his word.
SPEAKER_02: Offer your gifts to the church.
SPEAKER_02: We as a church need you.
SPEAKER_02: We are incomplete without your voice in the life of the church.
SPEAKER_02: So first, women have a robust voice in the worship of the church.
SPEAKER_02: Second, worship in the church is participatory.
SPEAKER_02: Worship in the church is participatory.
SPEAKER_02: Now, in the ancient worship of the church, they did this in tr in homes.
SPEAKER_02: They worshiped in homes, and typically the church size was somewhere between 20 and 50.
SPEAKER_02: 20 and 50.
SPEAKER_02: And what this meant is a couple things.
SPEAKER_02: One is it meant that the worship service typically lasted somewhere along the lines of three to four hours.
SPEAKER_02: So we're going to extend our service time today.
SPEAKER_02: There was lots included in the worship gatherings of the church.
SPEAKER_02: Typically, a meal was included.
SPEAKER_02: They had the major movements of the worship service, which included reading of scripture, it included instruction from the elder, it included worship in prayers, which included things like speaking in tongues and prophecies, but also public prayers.
SPEAKER_02: It also included the Lord's table or communion, and it also included offering and gifts.
SPEAKER_02: That was one of the basic components of an ancient worship service.
SPEAKER_02: But that usually lasted a long time because they were all gathered in a home and as a much smaller group.
SPEAKER_02: Now, we can't do that with this many people.
SPEAKER_02: And so we've set ordered it in a certain kind of way.
SPEAKER_02: We do some of that here, and we also do some of it in our life groups.
SPEAKER_02: And both are essential to the worship of the church.
SPEAKER_02: To participate in the worship of the church means you have a speaking part to play.
SPEAKER_02: Your voice matters.
SPEAKER_02: And not just when you sing here and worship, but in the groups that God has called you to.
SPEAKER_02: And part of how we do that in this church is through life groups.
SPEAKER_02: And so I want to encourage you, come here to worship, also gather in life groups.
SPEAKER_02: This is how we do what Paul is talking about.
SPEAKER_02: It's participatory.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't participate, if all you do is look at other people do something for you in worship, then you've missed an essential part of what it means to be in the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: So worship is participatory by all.
SPEAKER_02: And third and finally, worship in the church is for both insiders and outsiders.
SPEAKER_02: Worship in the church is for both insiders and outsiders.
SPEAKER_02: For insiders.
SPEAKER_02: Paul is very clear in this text that why you come here week in and week out is to be built up in your faith, to be strengthened, to be encouraged, to learn, to grow in your faith.
SPEAKER_02: That's why you're here.
SPEAKER_02: Second, worship is not just for those who are insiders in the church, it's also for outsiders.
SPEAKER_02: Paul expects an anti.
SPEAKER_02: Anticipates that in the regular worship of the church, there are going to be outsiders, people who are not followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And for them, he wants the worship service to be a service in which they are convicted.
SPEAKER_02: They experience in their hearts that stabbing ping of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ that exposes them, as he says, the secrets of their hearts are revealed, and they bow down and worship God.
SPEAKER_02: And this is why he wants church to be orderly and decent.
SPEAKER_02: So it encourages and strengthens those who are insiders, and so it convicts those who are outside.
SPEAKER_02: So worship includes women who are a robust voice in the worship of the church.
SPEAKER_02: It's participatory.
SPEAKER_02: And third and finally, it's for both insiders and outsiders.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_02: Father, as we consider this challenging text this morning, we take a moment to sit with what we've heard, to reflect upon it and to consider what it means for each of us today.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe some of the ladies here, Lord, need encouragement from you.
SPEAKER_02: That they have a critical role, an important place in the life of the church.
SPEAKER_02: They need you to call them out and to speak up.
SPEAKER_02: Ways that they have disgraced or embarrassed one another.
SPEAKER_02: And there's some repentance that's necessary.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe for others they have not really been participating.
SPEAKER_02: They've been more like a spectator rather than a participant.
SPEAKER_02: And this morning, Lord, you're calling them in deeper into the life of the church.
SPEAKER_02: And maybe there's an outsider here this morning, somebody who's been estranged from you.
SPEAKER_02: And they heard the good news of Jesus and his death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: And you this morning want to be made right with God.
SPEAKER_02: This morning, if that's you, just call upon the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I believe in your Son Jesus Christ and what he's done for me.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to be restored to relationship with you.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, wherever we may find ourselves, we want to open our hearts to you and to receive your instruction, your word to us, that our worship here may glorify your Son Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: So that we would not be distracted or discouraged or confused, but encouraged, strengthened, our hearts opened to the power and the goodness of your son Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And it's in his name we pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening to the Sermon Podcast from Mission Hills Church in San Marcos, California.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that this message blesses you as you love God and love others.
SPEAKER_00: If you would like more information about our church, please visit us at missionhillschurch.org.
SPEAKER_00: God bless.