1 Cor. 12:4-11 An Introduction to Spiritual Gifts Today, we continue with Paul s theme of Christian worship, namely the use of spiritual gifts in the

Transcription

1 1 1 Cor. 12:4-11 An Introduction to Spiritual Gifts Today, we continue with Paul s theme of Christian worship, namely the use of spiritual gifts in the body of Christ. Remember, Paul is addressing a letter (a letter we do not have) written by the Corinthians asking certain questions about different issues. And it appears the Corinthians were immature in their application of spiritual gifts, particularly the proper use of tongues and other miraculous gifts in the worship service. I wish we had that letter today. This would make the application of some spiritual gifts much easier for us. For the most part, the Baptist churches I have been involved with, honestly, have not emphasized the proper use of spiritual gifts in their meetings. At the same time, some more charismatic churches (some Pentecostals ) overemphasize, and I believe, misapply spiritual gifts, particularly the more miraculous gifts. With that said, Paul s principles concerning spiritual gifts are not difficult at all. It s pretty easy, I think, to understand the deeper problems in Corinth. So my goal today is to highlight certain truths about spiritual gifts in vv. 4-11, which will serve as an introduction to the topic of spiritual gifts. I have 6 foundational truths that I hope will help us as. These will be brief. At the end, I will try and make some applications. 1. Spiritual gifts are from the triune God. Spiritual gifts are from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. When we think of spiritual gifts, we give more attention to the Holy Spirit as the one who gives the gifts. And though it is by the work of the Spirit these gifts are manifested, it is every person of the Trinity that gives spiritual gifts. Look at vv. 4-6: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. The first thing we notice here is that God is the source of spiritual gifts. And, in putting it this way, I think Paul implies that the gifts of the Spirit come from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In doing this Paul gives glory to the three persons of the Trinity equally. (An orchestra is a good example of the work of the triune God in spiritual gifts.) 2. Spiritual gifts are gifts of grace. The word Paul uses in v. 4 is charismaton. The root of this word is charis, which means grace and the literal translation is gifts of grace. Clearly, Paul s emphasis is on the grace of God. There is nothing good that has come down to us except by the grace of God. And in this sense, all good things are from God s grace. We do not deserve what we get. But, God gives anyway. And we know that He gives because of the person and work of his Son. For God so loved the world that he GAVE his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). All God s gifts come through the Son by the work of the Holy Spirit. We saw this back in v. 3. The gift of the Spirit in regeneration. No one will call Jesus Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. Salvation comes by grace. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, but is the gift of God, so that no one can boast (Eph. 2:8-9). Part of the Corinthians problem was boasting about spiritual gifts. But if everything, especially in relation to salvation is by undeserved grace, then the same is true of spiritual gifts. We must always remember the good grace of God in our lives. This is why the NT

2 2 puts so much emphasis on thankfulness and praise. I think of Abigail s AHG badges. They say, Look what I ve done. But, spiritual gifts are not a badge of spirituality, but a mark of grace (Fisk, cited in Garland, p. 576). God s gifts look to God as the giver and they give praise and thanksgiving to his name. And let me say also that grace always results in action. It s like pressing the gas pedal on a running car. It will go faster! The grace of God in my life is effectual. Results follow. It s like good seed planted in good soil with good rain. There will be fruit. And the same is true of spiritual gifts. They are grace gifts that are given to God s people to serve God s people (and the world for that matter). 3. Spiritual gifts are many and various. Look at vv. 4-6: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. I don t think we should read too much into this construction. It is not as though the Holy Spirit gives gifts, the Lord Jesus gives gifts of service, or God gives gifts of activities. I think Paul s emphasis is on the great amount and variety of these gifts. In my studies, I have found 5 different lists of spiritual gifts in the NT (1 Cor. 12:8-11; 1 Cor. 12:28; Rom. 1:6-8; Eph. 4:11; and 1 Pet. 4:11). And the range of kinds of gifts are great. We have everything from showing mercy, serving others, administration gifts, prophecy, healing, tongues, faith, to name some gifts. And Paul mentions apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers as gifts to the church. With this in mind, it is so important to understand that these lists in the NT are NOT exhaustive. In other words, grace gifts (spiritual gifts) also include other kinds of service and other works and other manifestations of the Spirit not included in these lists. Therefore, whatever you do to serve the body of Christ comes down from the grace of God as gift both to you and the body of Christ. Now, let me spend a few minutes talking about Paul s list in vv Some of these will come up later, particularly tongues and prophecy in cp. 14. So, I won t spend much time here. And, I must admit that I may not completely understand exactly how each of these gifts was applied in Corinth, and how they are to be applied today. But I do want to mention them briefly today. i. The message of wisdom and knowledge. The emphasis is on the word message, a message that comes from wisdom or knowledge. It is not entirely clear to me how different they are to one another. Perhaps they were more clear to the Corinthians. In the Book of Proverbs, wisdom means to fear God and knowledge means to know something about God. Probably these gifts were displayed as a message was given by God that displayed wisdom or knowledge about God and the Gospel, or an application of wisdom or knowledge that was not given to all. But, ALL benefited by this message. I think today, preaching certainly falls under this category. But, I am not sure I can limit it to only preaching. ii. faith. This is not saving faith, though it must always flow from saving faith. I think in this context it may have been faith to perform some extraordinary work, or to believe that God might do something, that isn t clearly laid out in the Scriptures. George Muller and all his stories of faith may fall in this category.

3 3 iii. gifts of healing. It is interesting here that Paul uses the plural gifts in respect to healing. This suggests there were different gifts of healings: not everyone was getting healed by one person, and perhaps certain people with one of these gifts could not always heal. We see this with the Apostle Paul, who healed, but not always. I think this truth may help us not to institutionalize spiritual gifts, especially healing. If someone prays for someone and a miraculous healing takes place (which certainly does today) this doesn t mean that person should go set up a healing ministry. iv. Miraculous powers. This is literally working of powers. Though healing is a miraculous power. Miraculous powers is not always healing, but instead the exorcism of demons or miracles with nature, etc. v. Prophecy. We will spend more time in this gift especially in cp. 14. So I will give a broad definition. Prophecy isn t simply telling the future, but so much more. The most simple definition I have found is by David Garland who says, It is the declaration of God s will to his people. This is why Paul considers this gift as the most important gift for community worship. vi. The ability to distinguish spirits. Simply put I think this gift is designed to distinguish between the true works of the Holy Spirit and those of demons (true/false works), maybe even doctrinal discernment (1 John 4:1-6). vii. Various kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. I will be broad here as well since cp. 14 deals primarily with this gift. The word is literally languages. It seems to me that tongues are real, rational languages (earthly or heavenly). They are addressed to God and not humans (14:2, 14, 28; 14:2, 6, 9) and are mysterious by nature. Otherwise, why would we see the next gift, which is the interpretation of tongues, which makes known the meaning of the words used by the speaker. At the end of v. 12 he will mention more gifts. They include: apostles, prophets, teachers, helping, as well as gifts of administrating. And there are others mentioned. Again, we must remember there are more than what we find in these lists. God is good to give us these gifts! 4. Spiritual gifts are common to all Christians. Look at v. 7: To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. This means that every Christian has gifts. Paul establishes this from v. 3 when he taught about the spiritual person. If you have been regenerated (born again) by the power of the Holy Spirit and call Jesus Lord, you are gifted by God! What kind of a father would I be if I purchased lots of groceries, cooked a big meal, invited all my children to supper, and then gave none to Abby? God feeds ALL his children. He graciously gives gifts to ALL of them. Let me say a couple things before moving on. I think sometimes Christians get the idea that they have that ONE gift. But, I would venture to say that God s children have more. And God may gift us a different times and different places under different circumstances to build up and edify the body of Christ. And, even if we may not be gifted, all of us are still capable of serving in so many ways. It may be that in a local body, we recognize certain people to have certain gifts. And at other times, it may not be so clear. I do think that the prophetic gifts are more clear. A good

4 4 example is the qualification of an elder: the ability to teach. This is a prophetic gift. And there should be others within the body that aren t elders who are also gifted in this way. Also, non-christians do not have spiritual gifts. In fact, we saw last week that they aren t even spiritual. Yes, they may serve. Yes, they may give. Yes, they may meet with other believers. And yes, they can certainly benefit the body at times. But, these gifts are not spiritual because they are not empowered by the Holy Spirit. 5. Spiritual gifts are mutually beneficial. We ve seen a hint of this already in the letter as Paul commands the Corinthians to look to serve others and build others up through love. And in cp. 13, we see this again. We also see this in v. 7. And Paul will develop this later in vv God s gifts are good for everyone in the body. This means our goal as a church and your goal as individual is to use your gift/s for the good of the body, everyone. 6. Spiritual gifts are sovereignly given. This is implied in this passage and clearly taught in other places such as Heb. 2:4 which says, God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. God is no respecter of persons. None of us deserve what we have. And God gives to each as he wills. This means that NO CHRISTIAN has the right to boast or to think of themselves more highly. When this happens the consequences are ungodly, which is exactly what was happening in Corinth. Those who were gifted with certain miraculous gifts, especially tongues, thought they were more spiritual than the person who simply had the gift of service, giving, administration, etc. And this caused a lack of unity and ungodliness. How immature to think this way! I think we may see this today with certain Pentecostal churches. And I think with some pastors/elders, this is especially tempting. But, we must remember, God is the builder. We are simply his servants in this process. And, we need one another (vv ). Now, I would like to spend a few minutes just talking about these things pastorally. Let me ask, Do you feel like you are using your spiritual gift/s in this body? Brothers and sisters as a whole, do you think everyone here is using his/her gift/s in this body? My observation is this: We do serve one another? And we naturally use our gifts? We do these things because we are for the most part spiritual people who have the Holy Spirit; I believe these gifts are naturally coming out. However, I don t think we put much emphasis on spiritual gifts. And, I don t think we desire spiritual gifts, especially those gifts of prophecy (as Paul commands in 14:39). I think the environment we have, generally speaking in the body of Christ in our culture, does not make it EASY to use our gifts. Again, I believe we are using our gifts. But, the opportunities in this Christian culture are small. I think generally, meeting at a building simply to hear preaching/teaching and then going home is NOT conducive to the use of spiritual gifts in the local body. (Now, you may be using your gift/s with other believers, MAYBE, but not using them at all within this body, if I can give the benefit of the doubt.) But, this is not what God desires for you/us a Christians in this local body. Sunday mornings, at least the way we do it, is primarily for the preaching of the Word. And we should benefit greatly. But, who uses their gift/s on Sunday morning? The preacher. And this gift falls under the gift of prophecy broadly

5 5 speaking. Let me ask, Are you using your gift/s on Sunday morning? Maybe, but most of the time, not. This is why we have home groups! Consider 14:26: Paul says, What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. It seems to me that in these kinds of meetings, EVERYONE should come EAGER to contribute, EAGER to use their gift/s. Is this how you think about your home groups? I am going to be very bold concerning spiritual gifts and home groups. If you are a spiritual person, a Christian, who has put yourself under the carea of this body, do you come to home group with this purpose in mind, to build up and edify by the power of the Holy Spirit as you use your gift/s. Now, this may not happen in one meeting, but it certainly will over time. And, if you are not coming regularly to homegroup, if my application is correct, then are you sinning? Maybe not willfully. Maybe not knowingly. But, after today, if you are listening, and these things are true, and our home groups are the place you are to use your gifts, then YES, you are sinning. And, I must say, gathering together isn t just for giving. It is also to receive. Have you ever thought that if you aren t coming, you are missing out on a double blessing? WE MUST CHANGE THIS MINDSET. WE MUST CHANGE THIS ENVIRONMENT. WE MUST BE INTENTIONAL (EVERYONE) IN OUR HOME GROUPS AS WE COME TOGETHER WITH THE MINDSET THAT I WILL DO GOOD TO MY BROTHER OR SISTER BY USING MY GIFTS. Let me say also, I think there can be disagreement on the practical application of certain gifts, and even if they are in existence today. But, this is not Paul s point. We must agree that all gifts are from the grace of God by the Spirit of God to be used in love to build up the body. And if we are not emphasizing these truths in a biblical way, we are in error. Brothers and sisters, these words are for us today, in this time, in this place. I pray that in the coming days, and as we continue for the next few weeks on spiritual gifts, that we would benefit greatly by the grace of God as we try and apply what we are reading and hearing.