Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (NTA)

1 Corinthians 14:13-25

¹³ Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. ¹⁴ For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. ¹⁵ What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. ¹⁶ Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? ¹⁷ For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. ¹⁸ I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. ¹⁹ Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

²⁰ Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. ²¹ In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” ²² Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. ²³ If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? ²⁴ But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, ²⁵ the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.

Tongues are for unbelievers, prophecy is for believers. But if people prophecy to an unbeliever the unbeliever will be convicted, and he will worship God. So tongues work to call the unbeliever but are of no benefit to those who believe. Therefore, let us prophecy for the believer and un believer, so that we can all grow to maturity.

What does it mean to prophecy? Wouldn't you like to be a prophet? You would have the scores for all the sporting events. You would know the lottery numbers. You would never get into an accident. You always know what is coming around the corner. But is this what it means to be a prophet? 

NO! A prophet is one who points to Christ and his kingdom or reign. A prophet tells you about what God is doing for you. He will talk about your baptism as a blessed cleansing of sin, and an adoption to be a son of God. He will tell you of the gift Christ offers to you in the Lord's Supper, where he offers you his very body and blood for your forgiveness.

A prophet is one that points out your sins. He tells you how you stumble, and need to live a better life. But he never forgets to point you back to Christ, who has died for your forgiveness. He is risen as the first fruits of your resurrection. He is even coming to restore all of creation to it full glory.