Tongues & Prophecy
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1 Corinthians TONGUES & PROPHECY: 1 Corinthians 14 I. The Gifts of Tongues and Prophecy. (v. 1-25) A. (v. 1) 1. “Follow after charity,…” a. “follow” - Gr. “pursue; aggressively chase; hunt down” 1) Gr. present imperative active - a command to keep on pursuing after love! a) Illust. - Like those nature shows where the cheetah is chasing the gazelle, we are to “chase after love”! b. “charity” - Gr. agape - “divine love” 2. “…and desire spiritual gifts,…” a. “desire” - Gr. “earnestly desire; deeply desire; be completely intent upon” 1) Gr. present imperative active - a command to “keep on earnestly desiring spiritual gifts”! 3. “…but rather that ye may prophesy.” a. “prophesy” - Gr. prophéteuó - “speak forth; tell before” 1) From Greek words pro (“before; in the presence of; in front of”) and phēmí (“declare; say; speak”), thus “to declare before” someone, or “speak forth” to someone from God. 2) Definition: The gift of prophecy is speaking forth the word of God with the anointing of the Holy Spirit.1 3) The author of Hebrews wrote, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,” (Hebrews 1:1) a) All throughout the O.T., God spoke through the prophets, and they excercised the gift of prophecy. i. NOTE: There is the gift of “prophet” (Eph. 4:11), but there is also just the gift of “prophecy” which all believers can have (v. 31). 4) Sometimes this gift has a predictive element. a) Cf. Acts 11:27-28 - sometimes foretelling the future 1 Chuck Smith. Living Water, p. 151 !1 1 Corinthians TONGUES & PROPHECY: 1 Corinthians 14 i. Illust. - Last month at the pastor’s conference, Bryant Stevens and I were talking, and he said, “Hey bro, I don’t know how the gifts of the spirit work and all that, but the Lord is really gonna bless Moriah Chapel. He’s gonna do a great work,” and it was something impressed on his heart to say prophetically. ii. Illust. - Years ago, right before I went to Bible College (1/8/2000), I was with some friends watching a football playoff game, Buffalo Bills vs. Tennessee Titans. The Titans took a 15–13 lead with 1:48 to go in the game. The next drive, the Bills drove for 37 yards and kicked a field goal with only 16 seconds left on the clock, and took the lead 16-15… Right before the kickoff, I told my friends, “Watch, the Titans will receive the ball and run right, then the guy will throw it across the field to the left, and the guy will run it all the way back.” Sure enough, Titans tight end Frank Wycheck got the ball, ran right, and then threw a lateral pass across the field to Kevin Dyson, who then ran 75 yards to score the winning touchdown, winning 22–16!!! That became known as the “Music City Miracle.” They looked at me like I was crazy for calling it. I said, “I told you so!” 5) Most of the time, prophecy is a word that God will give to someone to speak into their life or situation. a) Cf. Acts 13:2; 15:32; 21:10-11; Romans 12:6 i. Illust. - When TJ and I were meeting with pastor Jimmy Orate to pray about our situation with the kids while meeting at the library, after we were done praying, TJ very naturally said something like, “If we take care of the kids, God will take care of the church.” I really felt like that was the Lord speaking prophetically to us. It was a word of encouragement to step out in faith and trust Him, so we did and He is working. ii. Q = Have you ever had those moments during the message where it’s as if God is speaking directly to you? Or you’ll be talking to someone about some scriptures, and the pastor will quote some of those same passages?… !2 1 Corinthians TONGUES & PROPHECY: 1 Corinthians 14 b) Cf. 1 Timothy 4:14 - Timothy received a spiritual gift when the elders laid hands on him and prophesied over him. i. Illust. - When I was ordained and the elders of Calvary Chapel Hot Springs were praying over me, pastor Mark Schwartz prayed Acts 20:28 over me and said prophetically, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28) B. (v. 2) 1. “For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue…” a. “tongue” - Gr. glóssa - “language” 1) Definition: Tongues is a gift whereby the Holy Spirit gives you a supernatural ability to pray in a language that you do not know or understand. a) “unknown” - in italics, thus added by translated to help clarify meaning. 2) Cf. Mark 16:15-17 - Jesus prophesied that one of the signs that would follow a believer was that “they shall speak with new tongues.” a) NOTE: There are are those that say Mark 16:9-20 really isn’t there because they’re not in the Codex Siniaticus or Codex Vaticanus, but these verses were quoted by Iranius and Hipolatus about 200 years before these manuscripts were even written. So, these early church fathers must have had earlier manuscripts that included them. 3) Cf. Acts 2:1-11 - When the Holy Spirit filled them while they were sitting (v. 2) and waiting on the Lord, and one of the signs that they Holy Spirit came upon them was that they “began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (v. 4) a) (v. 3, 11) “tongues” - Gr. glossa - “languages” b) (v. 6, 8) “language” - Gr. dialektos - “dialect” 4) Cf. Acts 10:44-46 - The Holy Spirit came upon Cornelius and his house and they spoke in languages (tongues). !3 1 Corinthians TONGUES & PROPHECY: 1 Corinthians 14 5) Cf. Acts 19:1-6 - When the Holy Spirit came upon the 12 men in Ephesus, it says, “And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.” (v. 6) 6) Cf. 1 Corinthians 12:8-11, 28-31 - Not everybody has the gift of tongues. 7) Cf. 1 Corinthians 13:1 a) “tongues of men” = Earthly languages b) “tongues of angels” = Heavenly languages i. Just because a language is unidentifiable here on earth does not mean it is not a legitimate use of the gift. 8) Cf. 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 - The gift of tongues will cease at end of the Tribulation period at the 2nd Coming. (cf. Acts 2:16-21; Romans 1:11; 1 Cor. 1:7) a) “that which is perfect” - Jesus Christ (v. 12) 2. “…speaketh not unto men, but unto God:…” a. One of the purposes of tongues is to assist the believer in his/her prayer life and worship of God. 1) The gift of tongues allows us, by the Spirit, to express ourselves to God without funneling our feelings through our intellect. When words cannot express what we feel, we use a spiritual language that is beyond the limits of our understanding, so our prayer life is more satisfying.2 b. So much of the Christian life is beyond human understanding. It’s hard to describe to a person that doesn’t have spiritual understanding (1 Cor. 2:14 - “the natural man”) 1) Examples: a) Try to explain to a deaf man the beauty of a symphony. You can’t! b) Try to describe the beauty of the sunset to a blind person. Explain the different colors it shines forth on a cloudy day. You can’t! 2) 2 Samuel 7:20 - David came to that place of his vocabulary being inadequate. 2 Chuck Smith. Holy Spirit Study Guide. !4 1 Corinthians TONGUES & PROPHECY: 1 Corinthians 14 a) A man that is so articulate with his praise and worship came to the place where he didn’t know what to say. David was a man so articulate, but he was so overwhelmed by the Grace of God, he said, “What more can David say unto you?” 3) 2 Corinthians 12:4 - Paul was caught up to paradise and “heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” 4) Ephesians 3:19 - “to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge” 5) Philippians 4:7 - “peace that passes understanding” 6) 1 Peter 1:8 - “joy unspeakable (indescribable)” a) Illust - Liesl and I saw a video clip where these guys down in South America were harvesting the coco plants, which we use for chocolate, and this guy brought them a chocolate bar to try for the first time. They were asking him, “What does it taste like?” and he couldn’t describe it to them. They just had to taste it. “WOW!!!” i. It is difficult to describe your experiences as a Christian to someone who doesn’t know them! The same is true in our relationship to God! c. When you’re talking about experiencing the indescribable in your relationship to God, we are often hindered with the barrier of language. 1) NOTE: The gift of tongues is an insult to our intellect! Our intellects rebel against uttering sounds that we do not understand! a) I believe this a reason why many people have not received the gift of tongues. They have intellectual difficulty in releasing their faith. d. NOTE: Language is an agreement between people that certain sounds express certain ideas.