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1 Corinthians 14:29-33
Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.
New International Version (NIV)
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The story of Easter 2020 will not be an empty parking lot or empty sanctuary or empty Sunday School rooms, but an empty tomb. This has been our story since the beginning of the church. The church has withstood any measure of medical crises, wars and natural disasters, precisely because we serve a Savior who knows his way out of the grave.
Thankfully, I was still able to proclaim my Easter sermon yesterday. People heard it sitting in their own homes. This makes me wonder how we will feel about corporate worship when we hear that it is safe to gather again. Will the absence of corporate worship make our hearts grow fonder for corporate worship?
As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he gave them instructions about doing things in an orderly way in corporate worship. When the Holy Spirit leads us in worship, the experience should lead to order. Paul would have balked at some of the more extreme manifestations people have identified as worship through the centuries. Paul clearly prefers prophecy – speaking a message from God to speaking in other tongues which others do not understand. My study of prophecy in the old and New Testaments makes me equate it with what we call preaching. Paul had a high view of prophecy and he speaks in 11:4-5 of women and men doing it.
So what is the point of corporate worship? Is it to disseminate information for instruction? Paul pictures an unbeliever hearing a message from God spoken by people in love with God and falling on their knees saying, “There is a God.” When you and I are caught in adoration of God and proclamation of his truth, an unbeliever in our midst may well say, “I need God in my life.”
So who can prophesy? In the New Testament we read that Philip the Evangelist had four daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9). The description of Pentecost shows the Spirit of God poured out on God’s sons and daughters so that they prophesy. Paul even writes earlier that women should wear a covering on their heads when they prophesy. In this chapter Paul calls upon the women to be silent in church. How do we add all this up? Is no woman ever to speak in worship? What if she hears a word from God and wants to speak it to the church? What if God has given her the gifts to proclaim God’s word clearly. Shall we tell her to “go home”?
When I take Paul’s own words in this letter (1 Cor 11:4-5) combined with the examples in the book of Acts (Acts 2, 21:9), I come to believe that we do not fully understand the issues which called for women to be silent in the congregation in Corinth. Why would Paul acknowledge women prophesying in chapter 11 and then say in this chapter let women be silent? Were some male or female members misusing their opportunity to speak? We do not know. What I cannot do is ignore the book of Acts, the experience at Pentecost and Philip’s daughters and make this one statement the exclusively operative word on the subject. As my friend Milton Cunningham used to ask, “So what do we think Lottie Moon was doing in China, knitting?” Of course Lottie Moon, for whom we have named our missions offering was proclaiming the good news about Jesus in very public settings, fulfilling her calling as a missionary.
We know in our own church how God has gifted both men and women to proclaim and teach the truth about Jesus Christ. Our own daughters have attended and graduated seminary to respond to God’s calling in their lives. I do not want us to spend time or emotional energy trying to prohibit God-called and God-gifted members of our body from using their gifts. Positively, my prayer is that every time one of the men or women in our church stand to speak a word from God that someone in the church will hear in their prayer, their proclamation or their scripture passage, not only their voices but God’s voice speaking through them. God is working through prophecy and preaching to this very day to draw people to himself. I am grateful, and so very hopeful for the future of the church at Tallowood and around the world.
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Pray with me:
Father, thank you that even when we can’t meet together we still belong to you and to each other. By your Spirit of truth and love, empower us to do all that you have called us to do. Lord, we long to gather again in corporate worship. Let the absence from each other make our hearts grow fonder for you and one another. Spirit lead us into truth. Thank you for the good gifts you give so that the world may be drawn to you. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Join us in memorizing the Word. Scripture for this week:
Matthew 5:31-32
It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
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| Our 2020 Every Day with Jesus readings will follow the Foundations New Testament reading plan. Copies of the reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download your copy at REPLICATE.ORG
We would love for you to join us as we read the New Testament through this year, five chapters a week. In addition I will continue my long-standing practice of reading one Psalm a day through the year. Use Robby Gallaty’s H. E. A. R. plan to study each chapter (also found at REPLICATE.ORG). Highlight verses which speak to you, explain what they mean in your own words in a journal, apply them to your own life, then respond by doing what God tells you to do.
Joyfully,
Duane
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