If you feel prompted to speak in tongues in a meeting of the church, should you do so?

If you feel prompted to prophesy in a meeting of the church, should you do so?

We can definitively, unequivocally, with all authority, say...“Maybe!” Maybe you should speak in tongues or prophesy; maybe you shouldn’t.

It’s not double talk. It depends upon the meeting and your understanding of certain principles for the order of service that are clearly outlined in the remainder of First Corinthians fourteen.

We’re going to see that there should always be order within the public services of the church. You can’t have order unless you first understand and agree that Christians can keep their speaking, including tongues and prophesy, under control. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

You’re dead if you don’t; you’re the devil if you do.

Those are the extremes when it comes to whether or not your church exercises the gift of speaking in tongues in its meetings.

Dead or the devil - which is it?

Well, it’s neither. Tongues is a gift still available to some, but not every, believer in the church. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

When is "five" greater than "ten thousand?" When it comes to the words you speak in the public assembly of the church.

1 Corinthians 14:13 Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.

The cessationist wants to read this as if it says, "therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may prophesy... or teach."

Paul nowhere in this chapter denigrates the gift of speaking in tongues. Why would he? It is, after all, a manifestation of God the Holy Spirit. To denigrate His gifts - any of them - is to denigrate Him. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

I must reiterate something we established in our previous study about the gift of speaking in tongues. In this chapter, Paul has in mind their practice of speaking in tongues without any corresponding gift of interpretation.

It is uninterpreted tongues that are the problem. When an utterance in tongues is interpreted, and is therefore intelligible, it is on an equal par with any other speaking gift.

Interpreted tongues edifies; uninterpreted tongues does not, and it can not in Paul's theology. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

The controversy over the cessation versus the continuation of certain gifts of the Holy Spirit is as intense as I've ever seen it in. Cessationists are definitely on the offensive.

One of their arguments is that continuationists are not very biblically astute. We're not very smart, they say, when it comes to the Bible. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

When it comes to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, cessationists and charismatics 100% agree on one thing: One day the gifts will cease.

We just don't agree on the day.

To bring you up to speed, if you haven't been following this series:

• Cessationists believe certain gifts of the Holy Spirit have already ceased to function in the church.

• Continuationists believe all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit will continue to operate until the coming of The Lord.

Paul is going to tell us, in these verses, exactly when the gifts will cease. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

As chapter 12 draws to a close, the apostle Paul speaks of certain individuals being "first," "second," and "third," with respect to the church. Let's see what he meant and how it fits into his larger correction to the church at Corinth. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

If the apostle Paul had been tech-savvy he might have produced a series of short parody videos showing the horrible manners of the believers at Corinth. Sure, they were exercising spectacular gifts of the Holy Spirit. But they were simultaneously tolerating all manner of sexual sin, they were promoting divisions, they were suing one another, they were divorcing one another, and they were given over to idolatry. Paul might have adopted the slogan, “Whatʼs in your worship?” (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

Paul starts talking about various body parts claiming independent identity from the whole body. His point is simple enough: the true nature of your human body is that it is one body consisting of many necessary parts. He will argue from that very obvious illustration that the body of Christ on earth - His church - is also one with many parts (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

Issues surrounding the Holy Spirit and His gifts are fraught with either/or arguments. Here we're going to see one of those areas where we tend to go to extremes and I'm going to suggest that both extremes are, well, extreme.

The issue I'm talking about is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

The believers in Corinth were, in a sense, swinging for the spiritual fence in their use and abuse of the gift of tongues. When we get to chapter fourteen you'll see that they were all speaking in tongues simultaneously without any concern for interpreting what was being said or for the exercise of other gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Tongues was their version of the home run. Paul is going to tell them that they were striking out, spiritually speaking. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

Things could get pretty wild at the worship services in the first century church in the city of Corinth. In chapter fourteen the apostle Paul says to them,

1Corinthians 14:23   Therefore if the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out of your mind?

Other translations say things like, "Won't they think you are crazy" (CEV), "will they not say that you are demented" (AV), and "will they not say the ye are mad" (KJV).

Madness was unacceptable to Paul. It was not compatible with the Christian faith. It was unworthy of Jesus Christ. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

When folks call the church asking for information about what we believe, 99% of the time what they really want to know is what we believe about the exercising of certain gifts of the Holy Spirit.

People have very strong opinions with regards to this subject and they normally fall into one of two camps:

• Either they are cessationists who believe certain gifts of the Holy Spirit have ceased to function in the church;

• Or they are charismatics in the sense that they believe certain gifts of the Holy Spirit must function in almost every meeting of the church.

I always answer that we believe all the gifts of the Holy Spirit are available and operational in the church today but that they must be exercised decently and orderly. Since we believe all the gifts continue throughout the church age, we are properly referred to as continuationists.

Just about every possible question a person might have about this issue is answered somewhere in First Corinthians chapters twelve, thirteen, and fourteen. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)