International Standard Sample Lesson
1 Corinthians Lesson #5
Good Questions Have Small Groups Talking
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1 Corinthians 14:13-28
OPEN
Let’s each share your name and what is one gift you
gave or received.
DIG
1.
Overview. How would you summarize the
message of this section?
As wonderful as this gift is, Paul wanted the
Corinthian believers, in particular, to stop overemphasizing it. They
needed to keep its value in perspective. Paul’s goal, as always, was the
unity and edification of all the believers. In light of this, Paul made
several points about the gift of speaking in tongues:
•
The gift of speaking in tongues is a
spiritual gift from the Holy Spirit (12:28; 14:2, 39).
•
Speaking in tongues is a desirable gift,
but it is not a requirement of salvation or of being filled with the
Spirit (12:30–31).
•
The gift of tongues is less important than
prophecy and teaching (14:4).
•
The gift of tongues must be accompanied by
some rules regarding its best use in public settings (14:26–28).
Bruce Barton et al., Life Application New Testament
Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 2001), 692.
2.
How does this expression of speaking in
tongues appear to differ from Acts 2?
The gift of prophecy should be desired more than
the gift of tongues because the ability to speak in tongues does not help
other people since they won’t be able to understand you. The “tongues”
mentioned are not earthly languages (such as the gift described in Acts
2:4–12). Instead, this refers to an “ecstatic” or heavenly language,
unknown to the speaker or to anyone else. Through this special gift, the
believer talks to God but not to people; talking to God primarily involves
prayer and praise. Because “tongues” is a true spiritual gift, the speaker
is speaking by the power of the Spirit, but the words are mysterious. —
Bruce Barton et al., Life Application New Testament Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale,
2001), 692.
3.
Verse 15. What does it mean to pray in the
Sprit?
Paul simply says, “I will pray in the Spirit. It’s
a choice I make.”
When we teach our kids or new believers to pray, we
don’t say, “Sit there until something happens. If you’re really supposed
to pray, you’ll pray.” No, we set an example for them and give a model to
them. Many times, I’ll have someone repeat after me, “Dear Jesus, come
into my heart…” as a simple prayer of salvation. Does the fact that
they’re echoing my words make their prayer ineffective or insincere? No.
They’re just learning how to pray, and that’s where they’re at in their
development.
So, too, I suggest that praying in the Spirit is a
lot simpler than we make it. It’s just saying, “I will pray right now with
words I don’t understand, trusting the Lord is inspiring these words and
partnering with me in the process.” Praying in the Spirit is not a feeling
I feel. It’s a decision I make. And once I begin to do this, it’s so
simple.
I’m not on a tongues-speaking kick by any stretch
of the imagination. But it’s a beautiful expression for me personally to
say, “I don’t know how to pray with understanding about this. I’m frazzled
and fried mentally. So I’m going to pray in the Spirit.” As I do, my
spirit is edified. The prayer language is available to anyone, to everyone
who simply believes. — Jon Courson,
Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson,
2003), 1082.
4.
Verse 16. “Amen” is a word we use in church
a lot. What exactly does it mean?
“Amen” is one of two words understood by every
believer in every culture—the other is “Alleluia.” Paul says, “Unless
there is interpretation of tongues, how can the congregation say Amen?”
Why should we say Amen? “Amen” literally means “So
be it.” — Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s
Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 1082.
5.
Verse 18 – 19. Is tongue speaking good or
bad? Are we for it or against it?
Verses 18–19 probably surprised Paul’s original
readers, who may even have been criticizing him for not using glossolalia.
If Paul refrains almost entirely from its public exercise, these verses
surely substantiate his extensive private use of tongues as a “prayer
language.” “Intelligible” (v. 19) is more literally “with my mind.” “Ten
thousand” could also be translated “a myriad”; 5/10,000 does not represent
a precise ratio! In verse 27 Paul certainly permits a few tongues in each
service, which shows that he doesn’t expect every one to refrain quite as
much as he does. — Craig Blomberg, 1
Corinthians, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 270.
6.
Verse 18. Why is prophecy better than
tongues?
The gift of tongues simply could not compete with
the gift of prophecy on this matter of edification. For tongues to edify
the church, they had to be interpreted (14:5). Evidently, a lot of
speaking in tongues was going on in the church of Corinth without anyone
bothering to offer an interpretation, and Paul wanted to bring this to a
screeching halt. But even with interpretation, the gift of tongues is
still no match for prophecy. Two stages were necessary for the church to
receive edification from tongues: the tongue had to be spoken and then
interpreted. Prophecy, on the other hand, was intelligible in and of
itself. So even though tongues could be interpreted for the edification of
the church, Paul says he would rather speak five words that could be
understood than ten thousand words in a tongue (14:19). — Roger Ellsworth,
Strengthening Christ’s Church: The
Message of 1 Corinthians, Welwyn Commentary Series (Darlington,
England: Evangelical Press, 1995), 223.
7.
Verse 20. What does he mean by thinking
like an adult?
Verse 20 balances this emphasis, however, by
reminding believers that the cognitive aspect always must continue to play
an important role in the Christian life, even if it must also be
supplemented by more affective elements. One thinks of Romans 12:2 with
its foundational command for Christians to “be transformed by the renewing
of their mind,” and of Paul’s later words to the Corinthians that “we
demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the
knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to
Christ” (2 Cor. 10:4c–5).
Cognitive psychology has since recovered Paul’s
emphasis on the mind: dysfunctional behavior often stems from warped
thinking. If one learns to think correctly, godly behavior often follows.
If this is the case, then one can scarcely overestimate the value of
thoughtful prayer, study, and Christian education, both formal and
informal, in conversation with wise and mature believers, past and
present. A lesson thus comes through this first half of chapter 14 “with
startling force. Whatever the place for profound, personal experience and
corporate emotional experience, the assembled church is a place for
intelligibility. Our God is a thinking, speaking God; and if we will know
him, we must learn to think his thoughts after him.” — Craig Blomberg, 1
Corinthians, The NIV Application
Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 274.
8.
What place does rigorous thinking have in
Christian living? Does it matter how we think, or only whether we have a
good heart?
A lot of people seem to be very resentful and
suspicious about the brains God gave them. They have somehow arrived at
the notion that the intellect ought to be distrusted in the spiritual area
and that the more spiritual something is, the more unintelligible it is.
Many Christians delight in living on the basis of emotional experiences
that seem to defy logic. As far as they are concerned, emotional
experiences are self-authenticating—if they have experienced it, it has to
be genuine and true—and any rational analysis of such experiences is of
the devil. — Roger Ellsworth, Strengthening Christ’s Church: The Message of 1 Corinthians, Welwyn
Commentary Series (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 1995), 222.
9.
Verse 22. What is the gift of prophecy?
But there is the gift of prophecy. What is this
gift? I hear some people say, “My gift is prophecy,” and they think they
are anointed by God to tell other people off. No, that’s not what the gift
of prophecy is. As a matter of fact, quite to the contrary. Read 1
Corinthians 14:3: “But he who prophesies speaks edification and
exhortation and comfort to men.” That’s not telling folks off. To edify is
to build up. To exhort is to fire up. To comfort is to shore up and to
hold up. That’s what a prophet does, and that’s what is needed so much in
the church today. There’s the gift of prophecy, and I thank God for it. —
Adrian Rogers and Steve Rogers, What Every Christian Ought to Know (Nashville: B&H, 2012).
10.
Verses 23 - 24. How much attention should
we give to how church feels like to outsiders?
This movement, popularized by Willowcreek Church in
greater Chicago seeks to win the lost through a weekend service that is
targeted toward the outsiders. People think this is a novel concept, but
it is not unlike holding an evangelistic crusade every weekend. An
evangelistic crusade features a service specifically designed to introduce
Christ and the basics of Christianity to the uninitiated. At Willowcreek,
they do that every weekend. Weeknight services, called New Community are
designed to edify the saved. This concept is alluded to in scripture.
There is a verse that says, “Even so, if an unsaved person, or someone who
doesn’t have these gifts, comes to church and hears you all talking in
other languages, he is likely to think you are crazy.” 1 Corinthians 14:23
[Living] The message behind
the message is this: when you do church, think about what it feels like to
outsiders.
Pastors that follow this model naturally
concentrate on the worship service. That is what the model is all about. A
great deal of time and effort is spent in evaluating and improving the
worship service, especially as it relates to connecting with the
unchurched. — Josh Hunt, The Amazing Power of Doubling Groups, 2001.
11.
This verse is a key verse in what is known
as the “seeker sensitive” church movement. What is the seeker sensitive
church movement? Is it biblical?
The Willowcreek/ seeker sensitive church movement
has been greatly misunderstood at this point. Bill Hybels clearly stresses
the importance of personal evangelism. It is not a “come and see versus go
and tell” choice. It is go and tell and come and see. This is exactly what
Phillip said, “Come and see.” (John 1:46) We too need to tell people to
come and see. The seeker service is only one part of a seven step process
Bill Hybels teaches. (I highly encourage you to get a hold of some of the
excellent material on the subject from both Willowcreek and Saddleback.)
Contrary to popular opinion, Bill Hybels and Rick
Warren did not invent the seeker service. Paul did. It is tucked away in a
passage that deals with speaking in tongues. Unless you are charismatic,
you are a little nervous about this whole subject. I am not here to enter
into that debate. I do want you to see the truth thrown along side the
truth. The main truth has to do with speaking in tongues. Let’s suspend
that for a moment. Look at the auxiliary truth about how we ought to pay
attention to how outsiders feel in our meetings:
So if the whole church comes together and everyone
speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come
in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? 1 Corinthians 14:23
It seems that Paul is saying every church ought to
be a seeker sensitive church. What other choice is there? Seeker
insensitive? Does it make sense that God would want us to be insensitive
to the needs of outsiders?
Church life tends to be laced with church-talk. We
need to be careful, when we are in the presence of seekers, to interpret,
or not use such talk. We need to plan our meetings with guests in mind.
We do this so that we consistently have a safe
place to invite seekers. If our friends have the least interest in
Christianity, the most obvious thing in the world to do next is to invite
them to places where they can get more information and a feel for what it
means to be a Christian. We might invite them to a class fellowship, a
worship service, a special evangelistic event, a concert or any other
place where they will be around Christians and find out a little more
about it. It will help them get comfortable with the whole deal. — Josh
Hunt, Enjoying God (Josh Hunt, 2000).
12.
Why is it important that we know our
spiritual gifts?
You may have never thought about it this way, but
as a member of God’s family, you are a gifted child. God has wrapped up a
gift in you.
You may say, “I’m not gifted; I’m just a lowly
servant. I’m not even worthy to lead in silent prayer in the children’s
department.”
Although you may feel unworthy and ungifted, you
are gifted. God is the One who gives the gift. Don’t come with some false
humility and say that you do not have a spiritual gift.
Alexander the Great, the conquering general, once
gave a beautiful and priceless golden cup to a lowly servant. When the
servant saw the gift, he said, “Oh, no, that’s too much for me to
receive.” And Alexander drew himself up and said, “It is not too much for
me to give.”
What if I had put that gift on the table for Joyce
with a card, and she didn’t even bother to unwrap it—just left it there
and would not even unwrap the gift? I would have been disappointed, and
she would not have had the joy of receiving what I gave to her. At the
judgment seat of Christ, you will give an account of what you did with
your spiritual gift—the stewardship of your spiritual gift. You need to
discover your spiritual gift, so we’re going to learn about how to unwrap
it. — Adrian Rogers and Steve Rogers,
What Every Christian Ought to Know
(Nashville: B&H, 2012).
13.
What good comes to an individual from
knowing and using our gifts?
Are you one who says, “I’m frustrated. I don’t seem
to be making any progress in my Christian life. I don’t see any victory,
and I don’t have any joy”? And I ask, “What are you doing for Jesus?” “I’m
going to church on Sunday morning. I’m sitting there. I’m listening to
music. I’m singing songs and listening to my pastor preach.”
Your problem is that you need to find a ministry.
You need to discover your spiritual gift and put it to work for your Lord.
There are three kinds of people in every church—those who make things
happen, those who watch things happen, and those who don’t even know
anything is happening. Most are the watchers, the observers, who have
never really gone to work.
We come to church, sit in our pews, listen to
messages, and call that the service. The service ought to begin when we
leave the building. Someone once said that the average church is like the
people at a football game. Down there on the field are twenty-two men
desperately in need of rest, and up there in the stands are fifty thousand
people desperately in need of exercise. That’s what we have in the church.
If you are tired of just drawing your breath and
drawing your salary, if you are not content to sit around and endure until
you die, then here is great news. God has called you to serve Him, and God
has equipped you to serve Him. God has given to you a spiritual gift.
You’re to take that gift, discover it, develop it, and deploy it for
Jesus. — Adrian Rogers and Steve Rogers,
What Every Christian Ought to Know
(Nashville: B&H, 2012).
14.
What good come to the church as many of us
know and use our spiritual gifts?
There is the mystical part of it all. The Holy
Spirit will say “amen” in your heart to help confirm your gift and
ministry. You will have the sense of cooperating with the Lord. As a part
of the body, you will receive impulses from the Head.
Bill Gothard tells this classic illustration. He
imagines a party, and they’re getting ready to serve the dessert. The
person bringing the beautiful dessert to the table trips, and the dessert
falls on the floor. There is the episode. Now here’s how the different
gifts may come into practice. The person who has the gift of prophecy
says, “That’s what happens when you’re not careful.” A person who has the
gift of mercy says, “Don’t feel bad; anybody could do that.” A person who
has the gift of service says, “Hey, let me help you clean it up.” A person
who has the gift of teaching says, “The reason it fell is it was too heavy
on one side. Next time put it in the middle.” The person who has the gift
of exhortation says, “From now on, let’s just serve the dessert first, and
put it in the middle of the table so it won’t fall.” The person who has
the gift of giving says, “I’ll buy a new dessert.” And the person who has
the gift of administration says, “Jim, get the mop. Sue, please help pick
it up. Mary, you go fix some more dessert.”
That’s a great illustration. You see how all of
these different gifts are necessary and how they all work together.
You are a gifted child. God doesn’t want you to go
to church just to sit and soak. Your life is going to be meaningless, to a
degree, until you discover your spiritual gift, and put it to work. —
Adrian Rogers and Steve Rogers, What
Every Christian Ought to Know (Nashville: B&H, 2012).
15.
How many believers have spiritual gifts?
Not everybody has spiritual gifts. Unbelievers do
not. But every Christian person who is committed to Jesus and truly a
member of His Body has at least one gift, or quite possibly more. The
Bible says that every Christian has received a gift (see 1 Peter 4:10),
and that "the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the
profit of all" (1 Cor. 12:7). 1 Cor. 12:18 stresses that every one of the
members is placed in the Body according to God's design. Possessing a
spiritual gift is planned for every Christian.
This comes as good news to the average believer. It
is pleasant to be reminded that God knows me, He loves me and He considers
me special enough to give me a personal gift so I can serve Him. It is
especially true in a society such as ours in America where many school
districts establish special programs for "gifted children." The
implication is that ordinary citizens are not gifted. Not so in the Body
of Christ! God gifts us all. — Your
Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow.
16.
How many gifts do each of us get?
Many Christians are multigifted; how many are, I do
not know. But I would suspect that probably the majority, or perhaps all
Christians, have what we could call a "gift-mix" instead of a single gift.
Given the variety of spiritual gifts, the degrees
of giftedness in each personal case, and the multiple ministries through
which each gift can be exercised, the combination of these qualities that
I have been given and the combination that you have been given may be the
most important factor in determining our spiritual personalities. We are
used to the idea that each person has his or her own personality. My wife,
Doris, and I have three daughters, all born of the same parents and raised
in the same household, but they are each unique. God's children are
probably similar. All Christians are unique members of the Body of Christ,
and their individual identity is determined to a significant degree by the
gift-mix they have been given.
The health of the church and its subsequent growth
depend on this fact. Nazarene scholar, W. T. Purkiser, asserts that "every
true function of the body of Christ has a 'member' to perform it, and
every member has a function to perform."
I realize that it comes as a surprise to some Christians, who have
been only marginally active in church for years, to find out that they are
needed, wanted and gifted to do their part in their local church. But it
is true. Unless you find some substitute for pleasing God, no substitute
exists for finding your gift-mix and knowing for sure that you are
equipped to do just what God designed you to do. —
Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your
Church Grow.
17.
Some of you have discovered your spiritual
gifts. How did you discover your spiritual gifts?
Believe that you are gifted. Spiritual gifts are
not special rewards for the spiritually elite. They are given to every
believer.
1.
Pray, Ask God to reveal to you what
spiritual gifts He has given. God wants you to know so you will minister
effectively.
2.
Explore your gifts. Study the scriptural
passages on spiritual gifts. Read books about gifts you think you may
have. Talk to people about their spiritual gifts and how they use them to
minister to others. Try to use different gifts you think you may have and
take note of the results.
3.
Consider your desires. What do you enjoy
doing! What seems to come naturally to you? What are you drawn to as you
pray? What motivates you? Your enjoyment of or desire for a gift may be
God's way of showing you that you possess it.
4.
Accept responsibility for using your gifts.
All believers are called to evangelize, to show mercy, to encourage, to
give, to help, to be hospitable, etc. as obedient servants. However, as
you do these things, the Holy Spirit may unveil one or more of them as a
spiritual gift both by your desire to do it more and by the impact it has
on the one ministered to.
5.
Seek the confirmation of others. They may
see a gill in von long before you are aware of it. What is it, that when
you do it, others tell you they have been blessed by it? In what areas do
people ask tot your help? What haw you done in the past for which you were
genuinely complimented?
6.
After you have identified a potential
spiritual gift, you must exercise it. Do not be afraid to use it. Paul
told Timothy to stir up and use his gift as a pastor and teacher. “For
this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in
you through the laying on of my hands” (2 Tim. 1:6).
Find someone who will mentor you in that gift and
help lead you into the ministry God desires for you. Pray and ask the Holy
Spirit to empower you in that gift and to show you how to use it to touch
the lives of others. — Avery T. Willis Jr. and Sherrie Willis Brown,
Master Life (Nashville: B&H, 1998).
18.
Verse 26 – 28 If I were to attend a worship
service in the early church, what would I find? How would it compare with
what we think of as a worship service?
It appears it would be quite participatory. Each
person did his part. You might chat about what it would be like to
experiment with that. What if each person agree to bring a short
devotional—something they are learning. I’d like to be a part of a group
like that.
19.
What do you want to recall from today’s
conversation?
20.
How can we support one another in prayer
this week?
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