1 Corinthians 12. And what I noticed is I was looking at it and I paused and I thought about the fact that it's right before 1 Corinthians 13. And of course, when people know of 1 Corinthians 13, what does that usually make you think of? Weddings, weddings.
So before coming to Christ Memorial Lutheran, I would do weddings from time to time, but I actually don't know that I ever actually did a wedding in a church until I actually came over here to Christ Memorial Lutheran. I had done a wedding on a mountain, I had done a wedding in a bar, I did a wedding on a ranch, and in a church it was like, how does that work? I don't even understand. It was interesting, so yeah. But with all of this, the constant though is 99 times out of 100,
You almost always have the bride and the groom agree that one of the readings should be 1 Corinthians 13. Like love is patient, love is kind, does not envy, it does not boast. It keeps no record of wrongs and already many of the couples are like, I think we need to revisit that a little bit there. Might be a good idea. And the thing with this is that I always found it interesting because 1 Corinthians 13 has nothing to do with weddings.
at all. It has absolutely, it is completely different contexts whatsoever. And whenever you look at 1 Corinthians 12, that you actually have a better understanding of what 1 Corinthians 13 is meant to be. So, you know, for those who are getting married sometime soon, just to let you know is 1 Corinthians 13 has nothing to do with weddings at all. So, you know, clearly. Now,
Now, of course, nobody wants to be the pastor who's terrible and tells people you can't use that passage at all. But in looking at it, there are a lot of parts to that passage that make a lot more sense when you understand.
the context with chapter 12. For example, it says, if I speak with the tongues of angels and of men but have not love, I'm just a clinging gong and a banging symbol. And it's like, what does that have to do with weddings? I don't know. And except for that one crazy cousin who always comes in at the last minute. But when we're thinking about it is to realize is that Paul is trying to put in context
that if you think you're speaking in the tongue of an angel or like a heavenly language, is to be asking, how is it that you are loving the people around you by doing so, or you're just making a bunch of noise that doesn't really help out with anything? And there's more to the chapter, too. It says, if I have the gift of prophecy, it could fathom all mysteries. And it's because in chapter 12, it is speaking and talking about having the gift of knowledge and the gift of wisdom.
Or it also says, you know, if I have faith that can move mountains, because 1 Corinthians 12 is talking about having the gift of faith, the idea of being able to do miraculous things with the faith that God has given you, or even to look at the idea of love not dishonoring others.
because oftentimes what had happened in the church is that people's view of what they were meant to do. It was like they were trying to lift up their own agendas or even trying to make themselves seem special in church and almost by dishonoring other people in order to lift themselves up. And even the last part, when I was a child, I spoke like a child that thought like a child or reasoned like a child,
You know, but when I grew up and I matured, you know, and then I put away childish things because Paul is trying to let them know that much of what they had been doing was almost childish. It was immature in much of what they were doing. And so we want to make sure that we understand then the idea of what's happening in chapter 12 is to try to help people see as you are together worshiping each other
what you are doing is meant to build each other up, not try to make a spectacle of you or anybody else. Now, there's a lot that's actually in here that it goes into, and there are a couple of different pieces I wanted to make sure to explain a little bit here. For example, it says on there, nobody who follows Jesus, who has the Spirit of God, would say Jesus is cursed.
Can Christians say Jesus be cursed? Now, it's not that often.
that we find ourselves in a situation where we might be considering saying that Jesus is cursed. It does not happen all the time. You're not standing at Starbucks asking for a frappuccino and they're like, would you like whipped cream with that? Yes, absolutely. Do you want whole milk or 2%? Do I look like I need 2% that's very insulting? Or would you like to say Jesus is cursed? No, I'd like to decline the Jesus is cursed. Absolutely, that'll be seven bucks.
And you don't typically come across that very often. And even to a point, though, where we might even wonder, what were they even talking about? The thing is, is that there are times where we might actually see this, and we don't even realize it. For example, we find out, and this was
from Emperor Trajan. So this was actually after when Paul was writing, but it's reflecting what they had already been doing for some time, is that if the government wanted to find out if you're a Christian, they would bring you in front and tell you, curse Jesus.
It was literally a test. If you wanted to prove that you were a good Roman citizen and you weren't part of this Jesus movement the way, then you would sit there and say, Jesus is cursed. You would curse Jesus and then make a sacrifice to some of the local gods. And then you were completely free to go. Why? Because they knew that no Christian could ever curse Jesus. And if you could not pass that test,
than you could be killed. And this idea of continuing to testify to who Christ was is one aspect of what we may be looking at here, but there's another. Is it oftentimes, especially in places like Corinth, you might find temples or different places that had different cults that were there. And they would have these
spiritual experiences where they might come up with all sorts of things that they might say. And they might say, we are filled with the spirit of God. But if somebody's filled with the spirit of God and says something that completely contradicts who God is, especially in his son, that's not the spirit of God.
Because you might have places like, for example, the cult of Dionysus and the idea of Bacchus and the revelry and drinking so much that they would be in these times of ecstasy and moments and all. And they might say all sorts of random things. And if somebody might be thinking, well, I'm Christian, but I'm sure I could participate in that. And they might say anything, including cursing Jesus' name. And the idea that you want to be in this experience
But if it's not something from God and blessing Jesus' name, then it is not from God. But even more than that, is what do you do to the least of these? Just remember that when we say, and Jesus says, whatever you've done to the least of these, you have done unto me. Because let's be honest, we may not always be thinking, well, is Jesus cursed?
But do we feel the same way about the people in the world around us? It's realized that we oftentimes have to make difficult decisions in life. We have to deal with difficult issues that happen. But as we do so, are we doing so with as much compassion and love and understanding as we can? Are we doing so asking, how is it that I am blessing the people around me
instead of just leaving them to be cursed. How many times do we make the decisions with family, friends, business, home, or even the world around us? And we don't ask the question, can I do so? Still loving the people in the world around me. Even to a point where I still remember somebody looking me in the eye and saying,
does it really have to be about Jesus? Isn't it one of those things where sometimes we think, well, someone's a good person and they're really nice. I guess that that moment is that even when I knew I would lose so much, it's just so pause and say, yeah, it does. Because at the end of the day, he is the only one that has actually demonstrated what love and hope are truly about.
because of giving up his own life for us. But with that is to realize that in that spirit, each of us has different giftings. Now, in looking at that, having different gifts of God's spirit is that we see a list here.
And it's looking at this and there are a couple different places that we might see in Scripture that show us a list of the gifts of God's Spirit. So like for example in 1 Corinthians 12 it says to one there is given the Spirit of a message of wisdom, another a message of knowledge by means of the Spirit.
Another has faith, another gifts of healing, to another miraculous powers, another prophecy, another distinguishing between the spirits, and to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. Notice they put the tongues part at the end. But there are different places in Scripture that talk about the gifts of the Spirit. For example, Romans 12.
If prophecy, may they have grace in proportion to our faith, if serving, then in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts, or if you're calling people to do something, you're exhorting them, that in their exhortation, in the one who contributes, God's grace is in their generosity, and the one who leads, God's grace is in their zeal, the one who does acts of mercy,
God's grace is in the cheerfulness. Now, notice that list. There's a lot of similarity with 1 Corinthians 12. But let's add one more to it, Ephesians 4. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ. So try to simplify those things.
Those who are leading, those who are speaking truth when it needs to be heard, those who are sharing the gospel, those who are caring for one another, and those who are teaching. Because let's be honest, the gift of wisdom and the gift of knowledge, not always the same. There are a lot of times where somebody may be very knowledgeable, but they may make very poor decisions.
or even someone who typically makes good decisions, but they just don't have all the information that they need. And so being able to see that distinction and that understanding, then we might pause and say, if there are only subtle differences, but there are similar purposes, why did the other ones not talk about the gift of tongues?
And we need to then ask that question of speaking in tongues. Huh? I mean, when we look at what that means, we may even pause and even try to understand what is it even about? And let's just be honest. We are here in a typical Lutheran church. If someone were to be coming in here,
and start speaking in some random noises and sounds that nobody understood right in the middle here, we probably check to make sure the security guard is outside and make sure that we knew how to dial 911. It is not something that we would typically see, but also in many ways it's something that we'd probably be uncomfortable with. And something we might want to even ask is, what is it even in the first place?
So just to clarify a little bit here, there are two big passages that reference this, one being Acts chapter two and the other one being our passage, 1 Corinthians 12. Now in Acts chapter two, we see that the apostles are there and they're speaking to people around them in languages that they understand. Now just remember,
People, the common language back then was Aramaic, kind of like how a lot of people in today's world speak English. But back then, they typically spoke Aramaic. Now, for business, you might speak Greek, and for religion, you might speak Hebrew, but everybody generally spoke similar language. However,
You're there in Jerusalem where a lot of people may be coming through from different lands and different places where they all had their local languages. And now instead of the people standing there speaking only in Aramaic, they start speaking in other languages that people can understand. Now, I'm not that great at being bilingual. I'm working on it.
a little bit at a time. Now, I had been learning some Spanish when I was younger, but I went to China for a year and thought, you know, I should learn some Chinese. And so I started getting some basics down. And I learned a woyao-sangmingo, which means I want a sandwich.
And then I realized Songminza is sandwich, all right? I swear. And I realized, though, when I came back, I don't know the Spanish word for sandwich. I have no idea. Even now, I have no idea what the Spanish word is for sandwich. But the problem is, is that I'm trying to speak Spanish, and I keep coming out with Yokeiro Un Sungminza. And then the poor ladies at the Takaria have no idea what I'm asking for and are very, very confused.
And so I'm over there trying my best to say what I think I'm supposed to say in Spanish, but all of a sudden it comes out in Mandarin. My brain and my mouth are doing two very different things. Now, I do know that there are times where somebody may be bilingual, trilingual, and they may start speaking a language that they know, but it comes out in a different way. But imagine the same thing is that you're standing there trying to share the gospel
You know what you're trying to say, but out of your mouth comes a language you don't know. Now, is that the same thing as what was happening in 1 Corinthians 12? Now, there's a lot of debate to that. And cessationists, in other words, those who believe that the gifts of the Spirit from those days stopped completely and they do not and should not happen again today. They would say,
that much of what we see today, when we think about tongues, for example, Pentecostal movement and the light, really did not start until the 18th or 19th century. So what they would say is that commentaries in the past never really brought it up until the 19th century because they were just trying to keep up with the way that people were changing this idea of tongues.
Because then it was this idea of there is an angel language, a heavenly language. Now in this idea is that supposedly nobody gave this mumbling or whatever this extra language might be where only supposedly angels would understand it until about the 19th century. Now the difficulty with that, there are several with it.
They try to say that the word is the same between the two passages. So therefore, 1 Corinthians 12 is just talking about speaking languages that people understand. But if you go back to the passage, it says the tongues of angels. But more than that also is that there were various church fathers that wrote about this idea of an angelic language, something that people don't typically understand.
The idea of Irenaeus, Tertullian, even Augustine. But it even was such a major part that there was even a major heresy called Montanism that had to deal with it. Because what would happen is somebody would say that they were speaking in the spirit and come up with all sorts of things in an angel language. And they might be teaching things that the church had never agreed to.
But even more than that, this idea of ecstatic speech, of having an experience, something transcendent from God, doesn't that sound like a wonderful thing? To see and feel that God's presence can be right there inside of you, moving you. And I do have to point out something. They actually did do a study on the brain when somebody was speaking in tongues.
they actually did go in and look at what parts of the brain are activating when a person is speaking in one of these angel languages and speaking tongues and it turns out the part of the brain that you use when you're normally talking to people is not the part of the brain that people are using when they're speaking in tongues which means that if somebody is over there speaking in what feels like
An angelic language or speaking in tongues, they genuinely do feel it is not their own words that are coming from their mouth. They are not actually trying to pull one over on you. So then here's the thing. Does that mean that we should truly be using tongues in our worship service as Lutherans?
And here's the point that we need to get back to though, is to ask what is the purpose of the gifts that we've been given? Because the purpose of every gift is to proclaim Christ. And that's the thing about why Paul listed it last. If he needed people to understand, if you're doing something,
Is it genuinely proclaiming the gospel of God? Because there are lots of stories of people who want to speak in tongues and they may be told, start mumbling and the Spirit of God will take over from there. Just start making sounds and it'll take off from there. They may not be trying to do something
that is deceitful, but that doesn't necessarily mean that God is using them to say something special or different. But even more than that is Paul himself said in chapter 14, tongues are for unbelievers and prophecy is for believers. In other words, the reason why the tongues were there
was two main times to show that Christ Jesus was reaching the Gentiles, was to get the gospel to people who hadn't heard it before in their language. But when you are with people who already believe, they don't need tongues. They need you to speak truth. They need prophecy. And that's the thing that we have to ask, is whether or not the gifts that we are using
are genuinely building us up in Christ Jesus. Because I do not doubt the authenticity or the spirit of those who do so. But I also say if it is not helping us to know Christ Jesus and to proclaim His Word, then let's go back to what does. With this is to realize
We all have different gifts. And each of us is unique with all of that. But all of those gifts are supposed to come from the same fruits of the Spirit. So while we may be looking at the idea that we may come with different ways of doing things, if whatever we're doing does not show love, peace, joy,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, generalist self-control. If we are not living out the fruits of the Spirit and what we do, then is that really something that we want to have as part of what we have? Because we as the people of God, we're of one Spirit, one Lord. So everything that we are saying and doing, if it does not bring us back
to who Christ truly is and to have that same spirit of understanding and knowledge and to live out what God has called us to do, that we don't need that. But rather is each of you is gifted in ways that does build up the body. So as we learn and as we grow, we may come across parts of scripture where
It may take us down various rabbit holes, and we may wonder, how does this make any sense? And that's part of why we're meant to learn together and to grow as one body, but also to remember that whatever you come across in Scripture, you never have to worry that it should ever take away from the true message that the Father sent His Son for you.
and that he now lives in you and proclaims his truth now and always. May God continue to live in and through us as we proclaim the gospel to the world that needs to hear it. Thanks be to God.