That All May Prophesy

I'm going to be in almost, with only one exception, I'm going to be all in the book of 1 Corinthians and in the bulletin I included a kind of a breakdown that might be helpful for our further study if we want to look at it and pray over it this week. I'm going to begin by reading from 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 23 through 25. If therefore the whole church assembles, and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all.

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. Now there's more in these verses of Paul than the issue of whether we should speak in tongues all of us or whether we should all of us prophesy. What Paul is concerned about in these verses, and really in the entire book of 1 Corinthians, is that our obedience to God, our unity with each other, and our daily life out there in the world, should be such that those who come among us can hear a word from God.

That strangers who find their way into our midst should know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is in this place. But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all. 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.

Now this certainly is the purpose of the body of Christ whenever it gathers, and whenever it exercises its ministry out there in the kingdom of Babylon. That the secrets of hearts should be disclosed, that a word should come from God that's clear, that people should know that God is really here. Notice that Paul is not concerned about how many eloquent prophets they have in Corinth, or how many clever people they have who can keep things running smoothly there, or how the money's coming in, what kind of crowds they're getting.

He's not worried about any of that because he knows that all that will take care of itself if these people are rightly related to God, to each other, and to that harvest field out there in that sprawling Greek city. If every member of the body carries the weight of the glory of God they've been given to carry, then a word from God will come forth through every believer. Jesus will be revealed through every believer.

Light from the Holy Spirit will come out and bring healing and deliverance through every believer. I think most of us would agree that dramatic progress has been made among us in the direction of becoming that kind of fellowship in the last few years. We have a long way to go, but we're making headway in that direction.

We'd also probably all agree that the word coming from the Lord to us from many, many different mouths is that we are to be a place where people can find God. And so we have to keep asking ourselves today and all the time, what do they find when they come among us or when they're exposed to us in any way? But what do they find when they come among us? Do they find us speaking in tongues? And by that I don't mean just speaking in tongues. I mean doing something that just doesn't make any sense to them.

Therefore, if the whole church assembles and they all speak in tongues, an outsider or unbelievers enter, they will not say that you are mad. Now, get me clear, I'm not knocking speaking in tongues. I speak in tongues privately.

And if the Lord wants me to do it publicly, I'll do that. So I'm not knocking that, but I'm saying speaking in tongues. It doesn't matter whether we're speaking in tongues or whether we're doing our thing here in such a way that anybody who comes in from outside can't figure out what's going on.

You have to be a member of the club to understand. Then they say, these guys are crazy. Or, you know, that's okay for them, but let me out of here.

Or, they say, those poor Christians, they seem to be in such pain. Why do they put themselves through that week after week? What are they trying to do, work off their guilt? Get me out of here, that's what they'll say. But, if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all.

He is called to account by all. 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.

If all prophesy, meaning that a word comes forth from God, not just from the pulpit, but from all of us, it comes forth in the way we speak, the way we sing, the way we act, the way we welcome people, the way we care about them, the way we share what we have, the way we take time to pray, whatever it is. And then they will say, God is among them. God spoke to me today.

God touched me where I am. Now, to have that kind of word coming forth consistently from us all, there's only one thing that's needed. And that is unity.

Not just any old kind of unity, but a specific kind of unity. We have that unity, there will be a word from God, coming from all of us. With unity, there will be a living word.

Without unity, the word will be weak, or it will be distorted. And so, Paul starts out the book of 1 Corinthians, this letter that he writes to them, by nailing them about the need for unity. And something we can be thinking of in terms of ourselves, he starts by saying in verse 10 of chapter 1, I appeal to you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree that there be no dissensions among you, but that you all be united of the same mind and of the same judgment.

For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren. What I mean is, each one of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Cephas, or I belong to Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? What he's getting at is there's an absolute and essential need for unity.

That's the one thing we have to have. For any fellowship that's going to have a living word from God and power from the Spirit going forth to raise people up out of darkness, there has to be unity, and that unity must be around the person of Jesus. And so, reading on, in chapter 2, verse 1, Paul says, and it's around Jesus Christ and him crucified.

That's the basis of it. When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling. And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and power that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. The one thing these people in Corinth had in common was Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Nothing else. They were Jews, Gentiles, slaves, free. Some people had money, some people had nothing.

The one thing that held them together was Jesus. And the blood of the Lamb that covered their sins. And what holds us together? You know, the only thing we have in common here, the only thing we have in common is Jesus.

See, when we determine, as Paul did, to know nothing among ourselves but Jesus Christ and him crucified, then our faith will be built not on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. And the power of God will manifest itself among us as a living Word coming forth, quickening, bringing life. What is it that holds us together? What is it that makes us members one of another? What is it that tears down that dividing wall of hostility, which is higher in this world today than it's ever been? Nothing but Jesus, crucified, risen.

And when we come from every other position, come down from our other locations, our attitudes, our opinions, and we enter in to this awesome peace, this marvelous power that exists in the one new man which Jesus creates as he tears down the wall, then we have and we can give life. That's the basis of everything else that goes on in this book of 1 Corinthians. From there on in, he begins to break it down to specifics.

What do you mean, unity around Jesus? Now he talks about unity around the lowliness of Jesus. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus' first, the first beatitude.

And so we read in chapter 3, verse 18, let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. And over in 4.6, I have applied all this to myself and to Apollos for your benefit, brethren, that you may learn by us to live according to scripture, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.

For who sees anything different in you? What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift? He's calling for us to come down and become like children, enter into the childlike faith and the childlike holiness of Jesus himself. Christians are often snobs. Religious people are always snobs.

And this is why Jesus says to us, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you'll find rest for your souls, and you'll only learn how to be meek. Unless you turn to become his children, you'll never enter the kingdom of God. He says to us, this thing isn't an option, this business of lowliness, it's an absolute essential.

And we enter into the lowliness of Christ by repenting of our vanity constantly and of our attitudes and coming down with an act of will together and submitting to the authority of the lowliest man who ever walked this earth. As we do, Jesus comes into our midst, manifests his power among us. We also find unity in the holiness of Christ.

And so in chapter 5, Paul begins to nail them about immorality that's going on in that church. And this immorality is not from somebody, the procedure then and now is anybody can come, it doesn't matter, a guy has five wives, that person is welcome in here to seek the kingdom of God, but when the person says, I'm following Jesus, then the behavior has to change. This guy's living with his mother-in-law, rather his stepmother, his father's wife, and nobody says anything, everybody knows about it, but they don't say anything because he throws a lot, and so Paul has to hit him about this.

And after he deals with that in chapter 5, he says, your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be fresh dough, as you are really unleavened. For Christ, our Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.

Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Then he goes, there are six chapters where he deals in one area after another in their lives and ours that require holiness. Be real, be down to earth, be in touch with what's going on.

Don't be some kind of Christian goody-goody. But remember that holy blood covers your sin. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

You are living members in a holy temple. And when the old leaven of malice and evil and compromise is purged out of the bread, then the Paschal Lamb can come among us, and he turns us into living bread for the world, and gives us living bread as a living word to feed the hungry out there. We find unity then also at the Lord's table, where he feeds us himself.

And so we read in chapter 11, if I find it here, verse 23, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this to remember me. In the same way also the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. There is nothing that we do together here that reminds us more clearly of the fact that we are one than eating this meal as we do week by week every week.

This is a reminder to ourselves that we eat from one loaf, we drink really from one cup, and that we are one body. When we do this in faith, the Spirit of the Lord comes among us and permits us, gives us the privilege of proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes. Permits us and enables us to proclaim to the world its only, only hope, Jesus Christ and him.

We find unity then, beginning to function as the body of Christ. You know, we all have that theory. We know it, we read it in Paul, in Romans, and in Corinthians, but it has to be more than theory.

It has to be turned into life, into practice. And so we read in 12.12. Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

And now we have to begin to function as one body. And this is something we all have to do. We begin to wash one another's feet.

We serve one another. We pray for one another. We work together.

We begin to fit in. And often we fit in with people who aren't our types. But in wisdom, the Lord knows exactly what He's doing.

He puts us together. And as we begin to function in this way, the world, somehow in a wonderful mystery, starts hearing a word that it knows is alive, can tell is authentic, that it's true, that it's not a bunch of platitudes and religious garbage. It can tell the difference.

And when it flows from a body that's functioning as a body. And then the next step becomes even more difficult. We begin now to have to learn to practice the love of Christ, which isn't easy.

And so in Corinthians 13, if I speak in the tongues of men and angels, this is where we find unity, unity in practicing love. But have not, if I have all that, speak in those kinds of tongues, but have not love, I'm a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal. If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, have all faith as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. But I can have that love, which is patient and kind, which is never jealous or boastful, never arrogant or rude, because that love has been shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit. He's been given to me.

See, but it isn't like, zingo, now I got it. And I walk around with a marvelous smile on my face, and I never get ruffled. Now I have to begin to practice that.

And so we think of the body of Christ as a school of forgiveness, a place where we learn to practice and actually live the love of God. You know, and the way we get that practice is to have that thing challenged. Where I have to really learn to forgive, and I have to learn to ask for forgiveness, and I have to show patience, and I have to make, repent of my arrogance and my rudeness and my thoughtlessness.

And as we do this with each other, awesome peace visits us in the Spirit, and life from God begins to flow. Finally, we find unity in proclaiming Jesus alive from the dead. And basically, when we prophesy, and prophecy isn't just foretelling the future, as we, I'm sure, all agree.

Prophecy is speaking a word that's alive with God. And every time we prophesy, what we're doing is proclaiming Jesus alive from the dead. So, again, we're back to where we started in 1424.

If all prophesy and an unbeliever or an outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 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. If all prophesy, you know, if the word now comes forth from all of us, and now there's this evidence that Jesus indeed is alive. When we speak like that, the stranger among us is visited by the spirit, and convicted, and encouraged, and drawn to faith.

And then this same spirit drives us out into the city, to the world around us, that marvelous mission field which surrounds this building, with a word which is so alive, that it sets the captives free. It raises the dead. It opens the eyes of the blind.

It frees those captives, and delivers those people from their oppressions. Long time ago. Our Lord prayed that we might be one.

I do not pray for these only, but also for those who are to believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast said. Today, this prayer of our Lord, for us, is being answered. Being answered in this place.

And each of us here is part of that answer. If we are willing to deny ourselves and fit in to the will of God, we become one body, in fact. And when we are one body, in fact, we are an unmistakable sign to the world that Jesus alone is able to tear down the wall of hostility.

That Jesus alone is able to make us one with God and with each other. Let's wait upon him. Just open our hearts to his peace and pray to him in silence for just a minute or two.