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Falling Asleep

Posted on by korgrocker

“After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”
1 Corinthians 15:6-8 NIVUK

Paul outlined a series of events that occurred after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. According to Paul, the first person to experience the risen Lord personally was Peter, and the last was himself, “as to one abnormally born”. But, sadly, the first person to really see Jesus and the empty tomb was a woman, yet she wasn’t mentioned in Paul’s list. “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance” … “At this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realise that it was Jesus. He asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?’ Thinking he was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means ‘Teacher’)” (John 20:1, 14-16). What an experience for Mary, who loved Jesus so much. In those heady days after the resurrection, many men and women would have seen Jesus, but Paul just listed the men according to the customs of his day. 

Some of those who had seen Jesus in the flesh had died in the interval between His appearance and Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church. Paul said they had “fallen asleep”, a lovely alternative to the finality of the word “death”. But believers do in reality just ”fall asleep”. Through the faith of us pilgrims, we are assured of eternal life, resurrection, and an eternal relationship with God. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God knew who would accept His Son, Jesus, as their Lord and Saviour. “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:4-5). Just think for a moment. Before God created the universe as we know it, He had each of us in mind. Our names were before Him. Every aspect of our characters and physical make-up was there in His plan. And all because He wanted the pleasure of our company forever. This is mind-boggling stuff, folks!

“God loved us and
chose us in Christ to be holy
and without fault in his eyes”.

So we won’t really die. Jesus said to Martha, the sister of Lazarus, “ …I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” (John 11:25-26). So there is a process by which we leave this life, leaving behind our physical bodies, which we no longer have use for. Anyway, most people’s physical bodies have worn out by this time, and all that is left for our loved ones to do is to ensure that the remains are given a decent burial. But our souls live forever. They go on, as Jesus said to the thief on the cross next to Him, to a place called Paradise. At the right time, God will provide new bodies for us. 2 Corinthians 5:1, “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands“.

I love this thought from the story of Lazarus in John 11. He got sick and died, regardless of the valiant attempts of his two sisters to nurse him through the sickness. In accordance with Jewish customs, he was prepared for burial and interred in a tomb, all within a very short time. But then, four days later, Jesus showed up and asked to be shown the tomb. It was a cave with a stone rolled across the entrance. But we know the story. Jesus told the people gathered there to roll the stone aside, which they did despite Martha’s protestations, “ …  Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible” (John 11:39b). However, the next thing that Lazarus heard was the sound of Jesus calling his name. If we apply this thought to our own end-of-life experience, once we have “fallen asleep” in the Lord, will the next thing we hear be Jesus calling our name? Just a thought.

Father God. There can be no place better to fall asleep than into Your Heavenly arms. Thank You. Amen.

As the Scriptures Said

Posted on by korgrocker

“I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve.”
1 Corinthians 15:3-5 NLT

“Christ died for our sins,
just as the Scriptures said”

Paul was a messenger who referred to Old Testament scriptures, the prophesies about Jesus, and also to fellow believers that Paul knew, people who had confirmed them. Isaiah wrote, “Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5). Jesus took the punishment for our sins that we deserved, “just as the Scriptures said“. The punishment for sins that Paul and those in the Corinthian church deserved. The same punishment that everyone who has ever lived deserves. “Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said”, wrote Paul. Why did Jesus take on the punishment that we deserved? 1 Peter 3:18, “Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit“. And we know from John 3:16 that God gave His Son that we might receive the gift of eternal life. So how is that going to work? No believer has ever returned from Heaven with a testimony that all their sins committed in this life were forgiven through their faith in Jesus, something that they would only find out when they reached the “Pearly Gates”. Of course, we have no measurable evidence available to us. But we know what Jesus said, and we believe, O how we believe! That is what faith in Jesus is all about. Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he had passed on to them some important things that had been passed on to him, and, although the Gospels were not available to him, Paul knew all about God’s grace and love, and, implicitly, the contents of John 3:16. As an aside, note that there are only two outcomes from this very well known verse – “perishing” or “eternal life”. In faith, we believers have made the right choice, but most in the world around us are defaulting to a place reserved for those who are “perishing”. So, Paul passed on to the Corinthians the Good News about Jesus, that He had “died for our sins”, “just as the Scriptures said”.

“He was buried, and
He was raised from the dead on the third day,
just as the Scriptures said”

Paul also wrote, “He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said”. There are several Old Testament prophetic Scriptures about this. We have Hosea 6:2, “After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence”. The Book of Jonah also has a reference to the third day: Jonah 1:17, “Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights”. This was a Scripture Jesus referenced in Matthew 12:40. Paul, being a devout Jew before he met Jesus on the Damascus Road, would have known these Scriptures well. We pilgrims are familiar with the story of the empty tomb. Psalm 16:10 is taken as a prophetic reference to Jesus’ resurrection. “For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave”. Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 provide incredible details about Jesus’ death, and they include references to His life beyond it. The Old Testament is full of Scriptures about Jesus, because the central theme running through it is always about God, His love, His plan for the salvation of mankind, and the ultimate sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.

For us pilgrims, “just as the Scriptures said” is the bedrock of our faith. The Bible is a treasure trove of spiritual nuggets, and Paul described its worth in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work“. And so we pilgrims constantly read the Bible because it contains God’s Word to His children to keep them safe on their journey to be with Him in Paradise. We neglect the Scriptures at our peril.

Dear Father God. We thank You for the wonderful resource that You have provided for us. We pray that You open the Scriptures to us and reveal Your will and purposes today and every day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Good News

Posted on by korgrocker

“Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.”
1 Corinthians 15:1-2 NLT

Paul starts Chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians with a reminder about the Good News, the Gospel, that he had preached to Corinthians converts when he was with them. We should remember that in those early days of the church, there was no New Testament as we know it. That didn’t arrive in its current form until the New Testament canon was established in the 4th century, with councils in Rome (382), Hippo (393), and Carthage (397). However, there would have been one or two letters available for the Corinthians, and perhaps some early writings that we don’t know about. 1 Corinthians was written around 55 AD, but the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) didn’t appear until after 70 AD. So we pilgrims are a blessed people, having access to so much Holy Spirit-inspired literature that has primarily established the theology and doctrine we take as read and enjoy. 

The Gospel is all about Jesus

The Gospel of Mark starts, “This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). It is Good News, because the Gospel is all about Jesus, the true God-man, the Son of God, the second member of the Trinity, the One who came to this world, born as a baby in humble circumstances, living in a poor village until He was about thirty years old. At that point, He began preaching to His fellow Jews that He was the Messiah and had come to save His people from their sins. The first words of Jesus are recorded in Mark 1:15: ““The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!””

Paul would have known all of this from Jesus Himself because of his salvation experience on the Damascus Road. Ananias, a man living in Damascus, was told to go and lay his hands on Paul, bringing healing, as we read in Acts 9:15-16. “But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake””. But Paul didn’t hang around, wondering about the veracity of his experience. We read, “Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength. Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days. And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!”” (Acts 9:19-20).

Paul needed no convincing about what the Good News was, and he needed no reminder. But apparently the Corinthians did, as otherwise he wouldn’t have needed to mention it at all. He encouraged them by reminding them that they had welcomed it and now stood firm in it, but there were obviously some niggling doubts in Paul’s mind that there were some who perhaps were not sure. But just in case, Paul reminded them that the Gospel, the Good News, would save them. 

It is sad that, for those Christians who have been on their journey for a while, they can sometimes lose the wonder of the Gospel message. Such believers can get tied up in other parts of the Bible or particular doctrines. They sometimes take issue with other denominations’ beliefs, pointing out doctrinal disagreements and losing sight of the Gospel’s common bond. But are we pilgrims clear about what the Gospel is and how we should never complicate it? 

“today you will be with me in paradise”

The Gospel refers to the clear and accessible message of salvation through Jesus Christ. It emphasises pure, uncomplicated devotion to Christ, rooted in grace, while warning against distorting this message with human traditions or legalism. The essence of the Gospel is to maintain focus on the core truths of faith, avoiding complications that can lead believers away from the simplicity found in Christ. Ultimately, it calls for a return to foundational truths, highlighting that knowing the truth is essential for spiritual freedom. Paul wrote in Romans 10:9-10, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved”. I always wonder about the thief on the cross next to Jesus. All he said to Jesus was, “ … Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom”. We read what Jesus, discerning what was really in the thief’s heart, said in the next verse, “ … I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise”. No complications. Just a simple response to a simple Gospel message. It had probably been many years since the poor man had been in a synagogue. He had perhaps never been to a Bible Study or prayer meeting and would have known nothing about liturgies and doctrines. All he did was believe in his heart. He experienced the fruit of the Good News in his dying moments.

“They stumble because
they do not obey God’s word“

Of course, the simplicity of the Gospel can be a stumbling block to many who always try to overcomplicate their approach to life. Such people perhaps refuse to believe that such a simple message would show them the path to Heaven. Referring to Jesus, Peter wrote, “Yes, you who trust him recognise the honour God has given him. But for those who reject him, “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.” And, “He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them” (1 Peter 2:7-8). There is nothing complicated about the Good News Jesus proclaimed in John 14:6, “ … “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me“. But for those of us who have accepted the Message of the Good News about Jesus, we stand firm in it, convinced that there is no other way to Heaven.

Dear Lord Jesus. You are the Way to Heaven, and we proclaim this message whenever we can. We worship You today. Amen.

In Conclusion

Posted on by korgrocker

“Or do you think God’s word originated with you Corinthians? Are you the only ones to whom it was given? If you claim to be a prophet or think you are spiritual, you should recognise that what I am saying is a command from the Lord himself. But if you do not recognise this, you yourself will not be recognised. So, my dear brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and don’t forbid speaking in tongues. But be sure that everything is done properly and in order.”
1 Corinthians 14:36-40 NLT

In these verses today, Paul is wrapping things up, and he gives weight to what he has written by the phrase “what I am saying is a command from the Lord himself”. Chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians is all about speaking in tongues, messages of prophecy, and how these gifts should be used in a public context. Rather tongue in cheek, Paul suggested to the Corinthians that, actually, when it came to spiritual matters, they were not the centre of the universe. In those days, there were other churches dotted around the Middle East who were also bringing messages in tongues or prophetic utterances, and they were probably facing the same challenges but without getting things so wrong as the Corinthians did. But the main message to the Corinthians was about worshipping in a Christ-honouring way, and preferring one another in the process. 

The previous parts of Paul’s letter have addressed several ways in which the Corinthians have got things wrong. There were the church divisions in chapter 1. The factionalism emerging in Chapter 3. The importance of supporting those who minister amongst them in Chapter 4. Sexual immorality and pride in Chapter 5. Lawsuits amongst fellow believers and the wrong attitude to sins, particularly sexual, in Chapter 6. Thoughts on marriage in Chapter 7. Food sacrificed to idols in Chapter 8 followed by more instructions concerning supporting those who work in their midst but who don’t receive any reward in Chapter 9. Idolatry in Chapter 10. A first look at public worship and how to share the Lord’s Supper in Chapter 11. Then we read what Paul had to say about the Holy Spirit gifts in Chapters 12 and 14, interspersed with those wonderful words describing love in Chapter 13. Paul took the Corinthians on quite a journey, but the picture that has emerged is of a church in disarray, one that has got so much wrong, and with much correction needed. 

So why did Paul have to include the statement that the Lord Himself endorsed his instructions? Probably because there were some in the Corinthian church who didn’t like what Paul had been writing. Perhaps as his letter was read out for all to hear, they were squirming a bit in their seats, and some internal rebellion was welling up inside them. Perhaps these people were thinking, “Who does he think he is – after all, he’s just a man like us”. Sound familiar? I think we have all been there at one time or another. Being teachable is an important quality found in believers, particularly those who are more mature in the faith. But if Jesus Himself were adding His approval to Paul’s message, there would be no argument. 

But as we bring our thoughts forward from two thousand years ago in Greece to churches in the UK and other Western countries, what can we learn? What sort of letters would Paul write to us and our churches today? This in itself is a topic that would fill more than a few chapters. There is such a plethora of different church liturgies and expectations. There are more than 29,000 church buildings to be cared for. We have so much technology. Bibles are a common feature on most people’s bookshelves, or on their smartphones, whether they read them or not, eliminating excuses such as “we never knew”. And, of course, why do we have to make things so complicated? At times, I return to the final verses of Acts 2, which start, “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). Of course, our enemy the devil will want to make things complicated, because he fears the stripped-down simplicity of the Gospel and what it means for believers. Some denominations enjoy bobbing up and down in a pew, following a liturgy by rote, but this is something never found in the Bible. I wonder if Paul would have anything to say about it!

Dear Father God. You never made believing in Jesus a complicated affair. It is our human tendencies that complicate matters. But we reach out to You this morning, grateful for Your grace and patience, as we stumble through life’s journeys towards our promised eternal home. Amen.

Behaviour in Church

Posted on by korgrocker

“Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak. They should be submissive, just as the law says. If they have any questions, they should ask their husbands at home, for it is improper for women to speak in church meetings.”
1 Corinthians 14:34-35 NLT

In today’s UK society, women and girls are under attack and often feel unsafe and marginalised. If we pick up a newspaper, it won’t be long before we find an article or report about a crime, or attempted crime, against a woman. And if that is not enough, we now have the offence of men wanting to be women, in many cases, to get access to a woman’s personal space. But treating women in this way is nothing new. Misogynistic behaviour is rife today, as it has been since life began. Patriarchal societies that mistreat women are still with us in other parts of the world, and immigration to the UK has brought with it some of the problems they experience. And because of the way men treat women, the feminist movements have grown, and they have been successful in pushing back the boundaries that some men want to penetrate. In recent years, it has been the feminists who have fought for the rights of women. At the same time, Christians have stood by, apparently paralysed by indecision and the reluctance to offend, even though the Bible is clear about how men and women are the only two distinct sexes, and how they should treat each other. 

But here in our verses today, Paul writes that “Women should be silent during the church meetings”. What did he mean, because earlier Paul said, “But a woman dishonours her head if she prays or prophesies without a covering on her head, for this is the same as shaving her head” (1 Corinthians 11:5)? So it seems that Paul was contradicting himself, on the one hand he taught how women should pray and prophecy in public, and on the other he said that women should stay silent. So we have to dig a bit deeper and consult scholars who have themselves puzzled over 1 Corinthians 14:34. 

The consensus seems to be that Paul was referring to married women, wives, and their chatter in the meetings, perhaps following prophecies. This would be in line with Paul’s teaching on submission in Ephesians 5:24, “As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything”. But then the next verse in Ephesians 5 says, “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her”. In the order of submission, perhaps the men in the church, who also failed to remain silent in the meetings, would have been told to do so by the church leaders. The leaders themselves, of course, would have been accountable to Jesus Christ Himself. In 1 Corinthians 14:33, we read, “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God’s holy people”. 

“For God is not a God of disorder but of peace“

Paul suggested that wives wait until they return home before asking their husbands about prophetic words delivered during the church service. But what about the single women, the unmarried and the widows? Or those wives without saved husbands? The thrust of Paul’s instructions would be that they should ask someone about issues raised, but not in the meeting itself. But regarding the men with questions, they should bring theirs to the church leadership for resolution, if necessary, returning to their wives with the answers needed. So, in the interests of order in church meetings, it is important that both men and women keep silent when they have questions or disagreements. These occasions should be resolved between them, and if necessary, with the help of the pastor. 

One thing is certain, however. Men should not use 1 Corinthians 14:34 in a way that belittles or is harsh toward women in the church. Love is the driving force. Remember what we read in 1 Corinthians 13:4-5, “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged”. We believers, both men and women, have a duty of obedience to Christ because, in the end, it is all about Him. We look to Him, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, for guidance and assurance. He died for us at Calvary, paying the ultimate price so that we can be in His presence forever.

Dear Lord Jesus. Yes, it is all about You, Lord. Whenever we take our eyes off You and look at ourselves, we will soon get into trouble. Please forgive us for our sins, we pray. Amen.

God of Peace

Posted on by korgrocker

“But if someone is prophesying and another person receives a revelation from the Lord, the one who is speaking must stop. In this way, all who prophesy will have a turn to speak, one after the other, so that everyone will learn and be encouraged. Remember that people who prophesy are in control of their spirit and can take turns. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God’s holy people.”
1 Corinthians 14:30-33 NLT

Paul continues with his theme about orderly worship in church meetings. These verses from 1 Corinthians 14 refer to the gift of prophecy and how it should be used in a public setting. Such thoughts seem a bit unrealistic in today’s meetings because it is unusual, at least in Western churches, to have so many words of prophecy that there would be a need to queue up to bring them. Some years ago, I remember a Charismatic conference where the leaders invited people to share words of prophecy they felt God had given them. They came, one after another, in good order, and the leadership tested each for relevance and whether they were from God. But I have never experienced such a time since. Today, church leaders would have mixed feelings, should a prophetic message be given in a church service. Some would be dismayed that the order of events was being disrupted. Others would stop the proceedings to hear what was being said, and, if necessary, change course to accommodate the message. The problem today is what it has always been: is the prophetic message a genuine word from God, or is it something someone has made up because it seems to fit the occasion?

But back to Paul’s order of service. He encouraged people to bring prophetic messages in an orderly way, “so that everyone will learn and be encouraged”. He went on to explain that “ … the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” (1 Corinthians 14:32 KJV). In other words, if someone was speaking, then the prophet should hold onto their word until it was a suitable time to bring it. And Paul then reminded the believers in Corinth that no disorder originates from God, because He is a God of peace. 

Thinking of people today, chaos and disorder dictate many a life. Stories of a chaotic lifestyle emerge all the time in the news and elsewhere, and people who work in communities that lack social cohesion have many tales to tell about the predicaments people get into. Such tales often arise because people lack a moral compass to guide their lives, or because bad parenting propagates the same problems in the next generation. For others, they find themselves in a situation through no fault of their own. But in church life, there will be no disorder, and God’s peace will be found. Jesus said to His disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). Paul said to the Colossians, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful” (Colossians 3:15). So immediately, we can draw a conclusion. If there is chaos and disorder in a church meeting, then perhaps Jesus and His peace are absent.

“The peace of God,
which transcends all understanding“

But for us pilgrims, living in a world that is never far from chaos, we have words of comfort left to us by Paul in another epistle. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). We are citizens of God’s Kingdom, where there is no disorder. In fact, it is the most ordered environment we are ever likely to find. These two verses must be engraved in our hearts and minds, and they will help us navigate any situation we are likely to encounter. The world around us may be falling apart, with people generally paralysed with fear and anxiety, but we stand strong, guarded in every way as we remain in Jesus.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your peace in our hearts, always there by Your grace and all that Jesus has done for us. Thank You. Amen.

Orderly Worship

Posted on by korgrocker

“Well, my brothers and sisters, let’s summarise. When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must strengthen all of you. No more than two or three should speak in tongues. They must speak one at a time, and someone must interpret what they say. But if no one is present who can interpret, they must be silent in your church meeting and speak in tongues to God privately.”
1 Corinthians 14:26-28 NLT

Paul set out the liturgy for an orderly meeting in these verses from 1 Corinthians 14, and today, many churches adhere to it. He didn’t specify the order in which these things should happen, but the simplicity of a Pauline worship service is refreshing in comparison to the liturgies applied in established denominations. I’m writing this blog on the first day of Advent, and the Anglican order of service includes a typical Holy Communion structure, beginning with an introductory rite, a processional hymn, the lighting of the first Advent candle, and readings from scripture such as Isaiah 2:1-5 and a gospel reading like Matthew 24:36-44 or Mark 13:24-37. The service also features psalms, prayers, a sermon, and communion. All good stuff, I’m sure, but what happened to the simplicity that marked Paul’s instructions? In the Pentecostal church I attend, the service starts with an opening prayer and some initial thoughts from the person leading the meeting. This is followed by a time of worship, during which several songs or hymns are sung, after which there is an opportunity for additional prayers and prophetic messages. A sermon will follow, including readings from the Bible, then a final song and a closing prayer. But at any time, there are opportunities to vary the order of service to focus on the Holy Spirit. A Spirit-led meeting is essential. That may be possible with a fixed liturgy, but it is perhaps a bit more difficult.

In some social gatherings today, there is what is called an “Open Mic” night, where those present take turns to sing or play a musical instrument, for the entertainment of all. Not everyone joins in, but it is an ordered time, usually convened by the host or another person in authority. This seems to be much of what Paul is advocating, with people taking turns to bring a song or hymn, possibly taken from the Psalms, another bringing a message in tongues, as long as there is someone there to interpret what is being said, a prophetic message that Paul called a “special revelation”, and a time of teaching, the sermon. Perhaps the Corinthians already had something similar in place, but without the order that Paul proposed.

But the thread running through all that Paul proposed had two important and intertwined aims. These were, first and foremost, an order of events honouring God in a place where the Holy Spirit could move, coupled with the need to edify the body of Christ, the church. The order of Paul’s service was not a dusty and lifeless liturgy that had lost its Holy Spirit spark many years before, a religious event lacking spontaneity and relevance. Instead, it was infused with the expectation that the believers were about to meet God, in a time full of love and a desire to build up fellow believers through events and opportunities all led by the Holy Spirit. 

The believers wanted Jesus.

At the end of Acts 2, we find a few verses that describe how the first converts to Christianity spent their time together. Acts 2:42, “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer”. And Acts 2 ends with “ … the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved“. There was something about the simplicity of those early days. The believers didn’t want a liturgy. They wanted Jesus. In Acts 2:42, we read, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts“. We should note two things here: the believers engaged in corporate prayer and worship as they met together in the Temple, and they shared Jesus with each other in the more intimate settings of a home group. Perhaps today, we should seek a return to the early Church model, and once again put Jesus before all other considerations.

Dear Father God. Please help us return to our first love, those days when we discovered Jesus for ourselves. We’re so grateful for all He did for us at Calvary, and we praise and worship You today. Amen.

The Sign of Tongues

Posted on by korgrocker

“So you see that speaking in tongues is a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers. Prophecy, however, is for the benefit of believers, not unbelievers. Even so, if unbelievers or people who don’t understand these things come into your church meeting and hear everyone speaking in an unknown language, they will think you are crazy. But if all of you are prophesying, and unbelievers or people who don’t understand these things come into your meeting, they will be convicted of sin and judged by what you say. As they listen, their secret thoughts will be exposed, and they will fall to their knees and worship God, declaring, “God is truly here among you.””
1 Corinthians 14:22-25 NLT

Paul seems to contradict himself in these verses today. On the one hand, he said that speaking in tongues is a sign for unbelievers, but then he says that “if unbelievers or people who don’t understand these things come into your church meeting and hear everyone speaking in an unknown language, they will think you are crazy”. Which is it? If we extend what this all means to today’s Western churches, then we can see the problem. Most established churches have a liturgy that excludes the possibility of speaking in tongues in public during the meeting. I can just imagine that the church wardens would descend on such a person and, unless they desisted from their message, they would be escorted out the door. Those churches with a freer form of service, such as the one I attend, still only rarely hear the public message of tongues, although it features greatly in personal prayer and praying for healing, for example. But someone walking in off the street and hearing a church full of people all speaking out their messages in tongues would very quickly reach the conclusion that everyone there is mad! 

On the other hand, Paul said that the same random person, an unbeliever, who walked into the church and found messages of prophecy being spoken out, would be able to understand what was being said and would be convicted of sin. This would be because the Holy Spirit brings the prophecies. We know the ministry of the Holy Spirit from what Jesus said, referring to the time when the Comforter comes, in John 16:8, “And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment”. Paul said such people, hearing the prophecy being spoken, would “fall to their knees and worship God, declaring, “God is truly here among [them]””. 

“God is truly here”

This was all good practical advice from Paul, as he appealed to the intelligence of the Corinthian believers, and logically explained something that, surprisingly, had not occurred to them. But why should Paul be concerned about what unbelievers think? That is an easy question to answer, because Paul was not only an Apostle, but was an extraordinarily effective evangelist. He was very concerned about the salvation of the peoples in his time, and in particular, his fellow Jews. He wrote to the Romans, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel” (Romans 9:2-4a). Later on in Romans, Paul wrote, “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation” (Romans 15:20). And we can read from 2 Corinthians 11 what Paul suffered in the process of evangelism.

We pilgrims, too, must be concerned about what people think. Too many Christians adopt an offensive attitude toward the unsaved people around them. They behave in ways that demand a contemptuous response rather than one that is attractive and able to perhaps open a door for the Gospel to be delivered. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, “Though I am free and belong to no-one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings“. In that context, Paul perhaps foresaw a situation in which a believer invited an unsaved neighbour into the church. What would this person find there? Chaos with the church members babbling away in tongues, or a place where there were prophetic messages, bringing conviction of sin?

“Is the Holy Spirit alive
and well in my church?”

We pilgrims go to a church, I’m sure. Do we feel comfortable about inviting our friends and neighbours there, or is it a place that, deep down, we’re ashamed of? Is it a place where the Holy Spirit is alive and well, and able to bring messages through His gifts that will bring conviction of sin? If we think not, or we’re not sure, perhaps some further prayerful thought is required about where our spiritual home should be.

Dear Father God. We want to be in the place where You want us to be. It must be a place where Your Spirit is free to live and move in the hearts and minds of believers, and where You can be freely worshipped. Please lead and guide us, we pray, and help us to reach out to those around us with the Gospel and Your message of hope. In the name of Your dear Son, Jesus. Amen.


Innocence and Maturity

Posted on by korgrocker

“Dear brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your understanding of these things. Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil, but be mature in understanding matters of this kind. It is written in the Scriptures: “I will speak to my own people through strange languages and through the lips of foreigners. But even then, they will not listen to me,” says the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 14:20-21 NLT

The believers in Corinth had become fixated and fascinated by the gift of tongues, using it as something to show off and possibly brag about. Paul was clear that seeking the gift of prophecy was preferable because it would be more helpful to the other believers. Paul made the comparison in a previous verse when he said that he would rather speak five helpful words than ten thousand in a tongue that no one could understand. Paul gently suggested to the believers that they abandon any sort of childish petulance in their understanding of the uses of tongues and prophecy. Instead, he said, “be mature in understanding matters of this kind”. 

Regarding childishness, Paul had already pointed out the Corinthians’ childish behaviour. In 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, we read, “Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?” To use any of the Holy Spirit gifts effectively, some degree of maturity is required, and the Corinthians, generally but apparently, lacked it, thereby reducing their effectiveness.

Paul also instructed the Corinthians to be as “innocent as babies” when it came to anything evil. Jesus said to His disciples, referring to the time when He warned them about their future role as Apostles, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). What did He mean by that? The Apostles would soon be sharing the Gospel in a world that was violently resistant to any ideas about Jesus and His mission to planet Earth. Most of the Jews failed to recognise Jesus as their promised Messiah, and tried to close down any thoughts and actions about Jesus being the One they were waiting for. The Greeks and the Romans had a pantheon of gods, and a new one was not welcome to them. Then we have the situation in Acts 19 where a riot was started by the silversmiths who were making idols of the Greek goddess Artemis. Their complaint was, “But as you have seen and heard, this man Paul has persuaded many people that handmade gods aren’t really gods at all. And he’s done this not only here in Ephesus but throughout the entire province!” (Acts 19:26). Paul escaped this event, but he didn’t in Philippi. “A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape” (Acts 16:22-23). In those days, sharing the Gospel was dangerous work. But those early Apostles innocently entered hostile territory with their eyes open, never counting the cost.

Regardless of the evil practices and idolatry in their communities, Paul reminded the Corinthians that believers were to be innocent of any involvement in them. Just as the early Apostles had to, they were to face into the hostile environment around them, shrewdly analysing the danger but innocently heading into it in faith that God would protect them, in their mission to share the Gospel.

But within their church environment, their innocence had to extend to matters of the Holy Spirit’s gifts, making sure that they did not become cynical and hard of heart. This is easy to do sometimes, as sometimes the same people bring the same messages week after week. A good pastor and teacher will soon bring correction and guidance. Those amongst them of a more mature faith would recognise the dangers in their society, and in the church, and they would understand their own limitations and provide room for the Holy Spirit to minister. But throughout it all, we remember Paul’s teaching on agape love from the previous chapter.

Paul finished these two verses today with the thought that even though “strange languages” might be used in communicating God’s message, perhaps a reference to tongues in Paul’s mind, the message could still be misunderstood or ignored. Being innocent in the face of any accusations of evil, and being mature in the way that they handled the Holy Spirit’s gifts and each other, was Paul’s encouragement and warning to the believers in Corinth, and something we can learn from today.

Dear Father God. We want nothing to do with evil, and instead, we must look to You for instruction and personal growth. Please lead and guide us by Your Spirit, day by day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Five Words

Posted on by korgrocker

“I thank God that I speak in tongues more than any of you. But in a church meeting I would rather speak five understandable words to help others than ten thousand words in an unknown language. Dear brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your understanding of these things. Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil, but be mature in understanding matters of this kind.”
1 Corinthians 14:18-20 NLT

Paul was apparently a great tongue speaker, but the Corinthians would have known that because he started the church there and pastored them for the first few months. Paul started in the synagogue, found much opposition, and so ended up meeting in a place right next door. But the people in the church had become believers in Jesus, responding to a message which had been the central thrust of Paul’s evangelism. They found that when they believed the Gospel message and were baptised for the forgiveness of their sins, they received the gift of the Holy Spirit in a way that astounded them with its power and its impact on their lives. Apart from when he used the other gifts, Paul was a great tongue-speaker, and that fact wasn’t lost on the Corinthian believers. 

But Paul had to address the overabundant use of the gift of tongues, and he laid out the necessary balance in a church meeting. Great to use the gift of tongues for their personal devotions, he said, but not in a church meeting, please! Instead, he encouraged them to seek God for five helpful words to build up the church. 

Fast forward to today and our church meetings. Whatever and wherever they are, there is always an opportunity to help other believers. Sadly, when we encounter another person, a negative situation often develops. There was a lady I used to know who got to church, which was a miracle in itself, because when she arrived, she unburdened herself of all her family problems. Negative after negative came up in conversation, but in return, a message in tongues would have been no help to her at all. Instead, she needed some words of encouragement to lift her and give her hope again. Sometimes five words would have been sufficient. 

“[God] will never leave you nor forsake you”

As we pilgrims go out and about, there are plenty of opportunities to bring five words of encouragement. It will probably be appropriate to say a few more words than five, but sometimes all another person needs to hear is that God loves them and cares for them. We need to have a word of Scripture ready and waiting. Something like 1 Peter 5:7, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you”. Or how about Philippians 4:6-7, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus”? Or there is Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you”. As we read our Bibles every day, we must squirrel away useful and encouraging verses for future use so that when we meet people, we have a few words to edify them. We live in a sad and bad world, but we have a Heavenly Father who loves us, and He hates to see His children struggling unnecessarily with worldly burdens. 

Dear Heavenly Father. We love You and praise You today. We are so grateful for all You have done for us, for the times when You have lifted us up out of the miry clay and put a song in our hearts. Please help us to be Your mouthpiece to bring encouragement to the discouraged in our churches and neighbourhoods. In Jesus’ name. Amen.