We have been studying our command from Jesus “to make disciples.” So far we have looked at the idea we are supposed to let our light shine into the darkness and by inviting others to Jesus by putting the nets down where He tells us. While there are many lessons in making disciples, our series will only focus on one more.
Just as we started this series, we will dig
into what may seem like an unusual area. But if you bear with me, 1 Corinthians
14 will give us an important insight into making disciples.
1 Corinthians 14:6-12(CEB):
After all,
brothers and sisters, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I help you
unless I speak to you with a revelation, some knowledge, a prophecy, or a
teaching? Likewise, things that aren’t alive like a harp or a lyre can make a
sound, but if there aren’t different notes in the sounds they make, how will
the tone from the harp or the lyre be recognized? And if a trumpet call is
unrecognizable, then who will prepare for battle? It’s the same way with you;
if you don’t use language that is easy to understand when you speak in a
tongue, then how will anyone understand what is said? It will be as if you are
speaking into the air! There are probably many language families in the world,
and none of them are without meaning. So If I don’t know the meaning of a
language, then I will be like a foreigner to those who speak it, and they will
be like foreigners to me. The same holds true for you; since you are ambitious
for spiritual gifts, use your ambition to try to work toward being the best at
building up the church.
This is the word of God
For the people of God
Thanks be to God
The book of 1 Corinthians is a letter from
the Apostle Paul to a Church in a city called Corinth. It was a troubled group,
receiving this letter aimed at correcting their behavior. In this particular section,
Paul addresses spiritual gifts, because the Corinthians had developed an attitude
of superiority around a particular gift. Paul speaks of the most excellent way
in chapter 13, but here in chapter 14, he is explaining the trouble with their
focus.
Paul highlights the gift in verse 6,
writing, “If I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I help you unless I
speak to you with a revelation, some knowledge, a prophecy, or a teaching.” “Speaking
in tongues” is the spiritual gift, one given to the apostles on the day of
Pentecost. They were driven into the streets, where everyone was able to
understand the message of Jesus shared by the apostles in their native language.
It was a gift given to them by the Holy Spirit as a public sign of God’s power
and salvation through Jesus. As a gift, Paul is saying it is useless if the
listeners have no idea what is being said.
Verses 7 and 8 contain illustrations to
Paul’s point. Musical instruments make noise. In an unskilled hand, that is all
they do. But with teaching and practice, the noise becomes particular notes.
Notes played with no order or reason are torture on our ears, but when the notes
are placed in an order and played in a sequence that produces music. The image
of a trumpet is about its use on the battlefield, specific calls relay different
signals to an army. Music was used with a purpose, if not they could sound “charge”
when the general ordered retreat. Paul is saying the Corinthians should use their
spiritual gift in harmony with the Holy Spirit, who understands the purpose of
supplying them with such a gift.
Paul, still on the language being used in
things of God so people can understand, in verse 11 says, “So If I don’t know
the meaning of the language, then I will be a foreigner to those who speak it,
and they will be foreigners to me.” In other words, people who cannot
understand what the other one is saying can have no relationship that is
beneficial for building up the body of Christ. Language becomes a wall that alerts
others that they are not one of us and we are not one of them.
All of that brings us to verse 12 where
Paul writes, “Since you are ambitious for spiritual gifts, use your ambition to
try to work toward being the best in building up the church.” The objective of
any spiritual gift given to any person by the Holy Spirit is to build up the
body of Christ. Speaking in tongues is a gift for such a purpose, helping those
outside the faith hear the message and understand. It also encourages those
inside the faith because they see others coming to the knowledge of Jesus.
What does this have to do with us? What
does this have to do with making disciples? First, all the gifts of the Holy
Spirit are given for the elevation (or the building up) of the Church. A simpler
way to say that would be “to help make disciples.”
Second, in Genesis 11, humanity attempts to
build a tower into the sky as a marvel of man’s greatness. It was a sinful attempt
to elevate man’s place in the world, flying in the face of God. In response,
God confuses their languages, causing everyone to speak a different one. The
event is known as the Tower of Babel. But in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit comes
on the apostles, God in some ways undoes the Tower of Babel, making Jesus accessible
to all through the Holy Spirit eliminating language as a barrier.
Language is more than speaking the same
sounds though. Different areas and people have different meanings to certain
words. So a person can learn to speak the language without actually learning to
speak the language. Marriage is one person coming from a family and another
person coming from another family learning to speak the same language in love.
Their backgrounds will have learned to live expressing love differently, but
now they must learn a new one together. Together they learn to sing one song.
And that is precisely the point being revealed
in this passage about making disciples. You and I as believers in Jesus are
being led by the Holy Spirit to learn His songs of “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and “Worthy
is the Lamb.” We are growing in our attempt to harmonize with His voice and
another. But at the same time, God is sending us to others outside the faith to
undo sin’s confusion in their lives. They need to learn a new song, but they
need to hear it from us in a way they can understand. The Holy Spirit will help
us, but notice the word “us.”
The team Jesus formed was made up of fishermen,
a tax collector, a religious nut, a thief, and momma’s boys. But a fisherman
would better understand the language of fishermen, a tax collector would better
understand the world of tax collectors, a religious nut would better understand
how to connect with religious nuts, and momma’s boys make up the Dallas Cowboys.
As one member of a team better understands how to recruit certain people, they
can help train those who struggle. Those who struggle can partner with those
who are more fluent in a language they do not understand. Ultimately, we cannot
effectively make disciples together without working together. And we cannot
work together without learning to harmonize with the Holy Spirit.
