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There is a rather morbid story that is told of a man who was once laying broadloom wall to wall in a very elegant home. After he had completed one room he paused for a cigarette and reached into his shirt pocket where he generally kept them and found that the packet was not there. He looked around and there, to his chagrin, he noticed a lump in the center of the floor and concluded the obvious. He wondered what to do and then a simple plan flashed through his mind; so, he took his hammer and began to pound down that lump until it was nicely leveled off and no one would suspect anything. After having accomplished his task he stood up put his hands in his pocket and low and behold found his package of cigarettes in his pants pocket. It was at that time that the lady of the house came into the room and said, "have you seen my missing canary?"
That workman made a mistake that proved tragic. It was tragic to the bird because it lost its life. It was tragic to the lady of the house, she lost a pet. And it was tragic to the workman because he lost his composure through the whole thing. But I want to speak to you this morning on a more tragic mistake. There are many Christians and many churches in America today that are making a mistake that is more tragic than that. It is a mistake because in its tragic consequences the result is a loss for the Lord Jesus Christ, a loss for the Church of Jesus Christ, and a loss for every individual believer in that church. That mistake is of identifying the traditional church service that will be held in churches across America this morning with the NT church meeting. The one is as different from the other as a canary is from a pack of cigarettes. What we want to do is to avoid making the mistake of thinking for a moment that the traditional church service to which you are so accustomed is anything close to a NT church meeting.
In order to avoid that mistake we must uncover the true nature of a NT church meeting. I believe this can be done by a study of 1 Corinthians 14:26-33. Paul begins verse 26 by indicating that now he is going to talk about the church meeting. This verse sheds a flood of light on what an early church service was like.
26 How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.
"Whenever you come together" is a phrase that has been used several times thus far in 1 Corinthians. It anticipates the coming together of the Christian Church for their meeting.
1 Corinthians 11:17-18 (NKJV) Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. 18 For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.
1 Corinthians 11:20 (NKJV) Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper.
1 Corinthians 11:33-34 (NKJV) Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34 But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.
So verse 26 is referring to their gathering for worship. Here, in the words of Leon Morris, "is the most intimate glimpse that we have of the early Christian Church at worship." What we want to do this morning is to examine these verses and the NT at large and see if we can discover some of the features of the NT Church meeting. You might be surprised about how little our modern church services have in common with the NT church services.
What kind of service was it? The first thing that I want us to see is that it was a meeting without any professional ministry. There were no ordained clergy presiding over the church.
26 How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.
Notice what the text says, "each one of you has..." I believe that what he is saying here is that each one was free to contribute in the meeting. They could share a hymn, or some doctrine, or a tongue, or a revelation or interpretation. He doesn't say the pastor or the elders will have the hymn or message. He says "each one of you." In the early Christian church there was no professional ministry. The rise of the professional ministry came in the second century. As you read carefully the NT you will see that there are four offices. The first is the office of headship and that is occupied by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the head of the NT local church. The next office is the office of elder. He was in the position of ruling. The Bible indicates that there was a plurality of elders at each church. The third office is the office of deacon. This also is a plurality and they assisted the elders. The fourth office is the office of priest. And every believer occupies that office. A priest is man's representative before God.
All religions have developed an intricate system of priesthood, an order of religious professionals who act as mediators between the worshiper and God. The essence of the Christian gospel is that believers have direct access to God because of the work of Christ. This is what we call the "priesthood of the believer." This doctrine is developed in two directions: (1) believers can respond directly to the personal activity of God in their lives, through the Holy Spirit and through the written word of Scripture, and do not require a human priest to mediate authoritative communication with God; (2) Christians have become a "holy priesthood" and can minister to one another and to the world.
1 Peter 2:9 (NKJV) But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
Revelation 1:5-6 (NNAS) and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood-- 6 and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father--to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
When the NT church gathered together it assembled as priests. Every believer was on the same level and free to contribute to the meeting of the church. Does that sound different from what you see today?
Today there is an unbiblical two-caste system that is throughly entrenched in our church life. In this two-caste system there is a clergy-caste which is trained, called, paid, and expected to do the ministering. And there is a laity-caste which normally functions as the audience which appreciatively pays for the performance of the clergy — or bitterly criticizes that performance. The Bible's view of ministry contradicts this system. No clergy-laity dichotomy appears in the NT.
John Stott writes, "I do not hesitate to say that to interpret the Church in terms of a privileged clerical caste or hierarchical structure is to destroy the NT doctrine of the Church." Within the body of Christ, ministry is the sacred privilege and duty of every believer. There is no passive, inactive majority. All members are to perform a function: caring for one another, building one another up, and ministering to one another.
Since ministry is the duty of every believer, no one person or group of people is responsible to provide the total ministry for the rest of the local congregation. The concept that only certain professional, ordained men are qualified to perform "the ministry" totally contradicts the fact that the church is a ministerial body.
However, the fact that the whole congregation of saints is to be a ministering body does not eliminate the need for supervision and leadership within the body of Christ. The elders are not priests ministering to laity, but leaders of equals. All Christians are priests, saints and ministers, but not all are teachers, leaders, pastors, and elders. Not all have the same measure of maturity, wisdom, and love for God.
The tragedy of the clergy-laity error is that it inevitably establishes a secular-sacred division between the Lord's people. Two levels of people are created — an elite clerical order that performs the community's religious functions and a mass of unqualified laymen. Such a division fragments the body, destroying the lofty status, oneness, and simplicity of Christ's holy community.
The word layman has crept into our vocabulary to describe the laity, that is, the vast majority of Christians who do not belong to the "professional" ministry known as the clergy. The use of this distinction has crippled the impact of the church on the world. Thousands of Christians have shirked their God-given responsibilities because they expect their pastor to perform all the spiritual functions. It was not this way in the NT church. They all shared in ministry, they all saw themselves as priests.
William Tyndall had committed his life to translating the Bible from the original languages into English. His heart's desire is exemplified in a statement he made to a clergyman when refuting the view that only the clergy were qualified to read and correctly interpret the Scriptures. Tyndall said, "If God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than thou dost" (Brian Edwards, God's Outlaw, 61).
How do you see yourself? Are you just a laymen, here to observe? Or do you see yourself as a priest whose job it is to minister to the body of Christ. What a person believes affects the way he lives. The real notable thing about an early church service must have been that almost everyone came feeling he had both the privilege and the obligation of contributing something to it. We need to return to the Biblical mentality of the priesthood of believers.
From our passage we can deduce a second feature of that NT church and it is this: there was no settled format. Don't you get that impression upon reading verse 26? There was a spontaneity in the NT church meeting. This makes it much different from the church service which you are accustomed to. Our services today are ordered and structured. At their meeting they all participated. One never knew what was going to happen next. Someone might pray or maybe suggest a hymn or maybe share a teaching. It was a service that they all shared in, not that they all just sat in.
The NT meeting had no settled format. Now many of you who are parents know that one of the things that brings great security to young children is to have a schedule. I think the same thing applies in the spiritual life. One of the characteristics of immaturity is a tendency toward legalism. There is a security that comes with a legalistic way of life. When you have a list of rules that tell you what is and what is not permissible you feel more secure. The same thing is true in the meeting of the church. If everything is laid out you have a security. That, however, is associated with immaturity.
A third feature that we see in this passage is: in the NT church meeting there was the free exercise of spiritual gifts. That is what our passage is all about.
... each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation.....
As in chapter 12, Paul strongly encourages every member's participation or use of his or her gifts. This list gives sample contributions; other elements of early Christian worship are itemized in Acts 2: 42-47: apostolic instruction, fellowship, the Lord's Supper, prayer, sharing of finances, praising God, and evangelism. If gifts are given to every believer for the corporate edification of the gathered community, then there must be opportunity for church members to exercise their gifts. How can we do this today? Should we lay aside our teaching service and have a service where anyone can participate? I don't think so. God has gifted certain men with the gift of teaching to build up the body.
Ephesians 4:11-12 (NKJV) And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
In the traditional Sunday morning service there are a handful of people who use their gifts, most believers just sit and learn. The free use of gifts and spontaneity that is seen in this passage does not happen when we meet on Sunday morning. The teaching on Sunday morning is very important and we cannot abandon it, but this verse doesn't say that they assembled to be taught. They were assembling to edify one another through the use of their gifts. This can effectively be done in small groups where we can get to know one another and help one another to live as God would have us to through provoking one another to love and good works, and by confessing our faults to one another, and praying for one another.
The familiar lecture format of Sunday morning services is totally ineffective as far as ministering our gifts to each other. We must gather together on Sunday morning to be taught God's Word by those whom God has gifted to teach, but we need more; we need to have time when we can gather to share what we have learned, to question each other on the progress or failure that we are experiencing, to pray for one another, to minister our gifts to one another. I am convinced that this needs to happen in small groups. Our small groups are to be a time that is unstructured, where all are free to share and minister. We all desperately need this type of meeting. We need this that we might exercise our priesthood, and minister our gifts.
Paul give us some general guidelines in verse 26 for this type of meeting — "Let all things be done for edification." This has been the overriding principle throughout this chapter and it continues to dominate the apostle's thinking. The word "edification" is the Greek word oikodome, (oy-kod-om-ay). It literally means house building. Figuratively, it refers to growing, improving, or maturing. Everything done in the meeting of the church must be done to build up the others who are there. That is, the principle of love must be applied and be evident. Remember love seeks the welfare of others. Warren Wiersbe says, "I recall being in a meeting where a woman took 40 minutes telling a boring experience and , as a result, destroyed the spirit of the meeting." D. L. Moody was leading a service and asked a man to pray. Taking advantage of his opportunity, the man prayed on and on. Sensing that the prayer was killing the meeting instead of blessing it, Moody spoke up and said, "While our brother finishes his prayer, let us sing a hymn." We must be careful that when we share we do it to edify the body not promote yourself. Whatever you do your purpose must be to edify the believers who are present.
With the freedom they had to all participate and without a structured format it could get chaotic. To avoid that Paul gives them certain rules. "Oh," you say, "I don't like rules. They always tend to lay down heavy restrictions on people." Well, I do not like rules either. I basically resist rules, but I learned many years ago that you cannot function as a corporate body without some rules. You cannot play a game of football without rules; the rules make the game possible. You cannot play a game of chess without rules; you cannot drive through traffic without rules.
So, certain fundamental rules are necessary, and now the Apostle turns to those. First, he gives us four rules to govern the use of the gift of tongues.
27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret.
1. No more than three men were to exercise the gift of tongues in the NT meeting, preferably only two. 2. They were to take turns. This is courtesy (love is not rude) and orderliness. This is a strong indictment of the modern charismatic churches in which the common practice of many persons speaking, praying, and singing at the same time frequently occurs. 3. One is to interpret. The Greek word used here is not (tis) "someone," but (heis) "one." In the Greek construction, one is in the emphatic position, indicating that a single person is to interpret.
28 But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God.
4. If there is no interpreter they are to keep silent. Paul's instructions presupposed that the congregation knew which believers had the gift of interpretation. Paul's remarks also disclose that the person with the gift of tongues possesses control of his senses. He had the ability to keep quiet if there was no interpreter. These are the four guidelines Paul gives for the use of tongues in the church meeting.
Then he give us some guidelines for the gift of prophecy:
29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.
The first guideline for prophecy is that only two or three were to speak at any one meeting. The office of prophet ceased to exist while the church was still young. But when Paul wrote this letter to Corinth, prophets were still very central to the work of the church.
His next direction is "let the others judge." I assume he is referring to those who had the gift of discerning of spirits (12:10). In the early church this gift was the watch dog, the patrol, the guard for the truth until the NT was written. When someone stood up and said, "God says," or, "I am a prophet of God," or "I speak for God" how did you know if they were really from God? The Holy Spirit gave a supernatural ability to certain people who could determine the true from the false. They would judge if their message was from God. The NT prophets were to be tested, proved. As the NT had not been completed, there was no written word to appeal to except the O.T.. With the coming of the completed NT, the written Word made this work of the Spirit no longer necessary. How do we tell today the true from the false? By the Scriptures! Our discernment is based upon our knowledge of the Word of God. We must all use the Word of God to evaluate every message that we hear. We are responsible for what we believe.
1 Corinthians 14:30 (NKJV) But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent.
The next guideline is when something is revealed to a prophet while another person is speaking. The first is to be quiet and sit down and let the other stand up and share. A prophet may have received a revelation sometime prior to the meeting of the church at which he subsequently related it. However, a prophet might also experience a revelation during the service. If this situation occurred, the prophet in the midst of speaking should end his message and let the other speak.
1 Corinthians 14:31 (NKJV) For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged.
In light of verse 29 this verse must refer to a series of meetings. If you don't get to speak this time you can share at the next meeting. This gives us some insight into tongues and prophecy. It is obvious that the person speaking was not under some irresistible force. They could wait until someone else had spoken. Or they could not exercise their gift if there was no interpreter. The same is true of the gift of prophecy. They had their spirits under control and that is what the next verse teaches us.
32 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
That verse means that the prophet is not some robot. God does not jerk a man to his feet and cause him to speak against his will. The spirit of prophecy is controlled by the prophet. They were in control of their gift. They could speak or not speak. That is assumed from:
33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace.....
If God is not the author of confusion then he will give to those who have the gift of tongues or prophecy the capacity to control that gift. So there would not be mass confusion by all of them speaking at one time. So Paul has given us the basic guidelines for using our gifts in the church meeting as exhortation. He also stresses the fact that we need to exercise them in an orderly way. The thing that comes through loud and clear to a casual reader is this: in the meeting of the NT church there was the freedom to exercise spiritual gifts under these directions. In a meeting like this there is freedom to share, to minister, to develop your spiritual gifts.
They seemed to have, then, two types of meetings in the first century, one in which, as described here, people met together in a small, intimate gathering in which they all could share with one another and exercise their spiritual gifts. There were also large, formally conducted meetings where preachers would preach and teachers would teach the whole of the Body and one or two people could exercise a spiritual gift to the whole Body. Such a meeting is described in the 20th chapter of Acts where Paul met with all the Christians in the city of Troas.
Acts 20:7 (NKJV) Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.
That famous meeting began probably around 9 o'clock at night, but Paul, we are told, "continued his speech until midnight." But in either type of meeting, one thing was clearly evident: there was one purpose for getting together. Paul says, "Let all things be done for edification."
The meeting of the church had a threefold purpose. It was not just for the exercise of spiritual gifts. As you look at the whole of the NT you discover that there were a variety of things that happened when the church gathered together. 1 Corinthians 14 tells us that they exercised their spiritual gifts. Chapter 11 tells us that they celebrated the Lord's Supper. Chapter 16 tells us that they gathered together and took up their offerings. In 1 Timothy chapter 2:1-8 you discover that when the church gathered together they were instructed to pray for those in authority, and for their unsaved friends and neighbors. In Acts 14:27 you see that Paul shared what happened on his missionary journey and what God was doing in his life. All of those are ingredients in the church meeting. So we can see that there is a threefold purpose of the church meeting: worship of the Lord, edification of the saints, and evangelism, the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the Lord's Supper.
How do we practice the priesthood of all believers? Where do we have the opportunity to practice our spiritual gifts when we gather? If you only come to the Sunday morning meeting you are missing out on much of what corporate worship is to be. Each and everyone of you needs to be in a cell group where you can use your gifts and share with others what God is doing in your life. Those of you who are in a cell group are to go to it with the attitude that you are there not just to sit but to share.
If you are not in a group you need to get into one. We will be adding new groups as fast as we can. Please don't make the tragic mistake of thinking that the Sunday morning church service is all there it to church. We need to be taught, but we also need to share our gifts and experiences with each other and encourage each other to love and good works.
As a priest are you exercising your priesthood? Are you ministering to the body? Let's strive to make sure that everything we do is for the purpose of edification.
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