Sermon Transcript January 29, 2017 Empowered to Serve People of the Spirit 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 This message from the Bible was addressed originally to the people of Wethersfield Evangelical Free Church on January 29, 2017 at 511 Maple Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109 by Dr. Scott W. Solberg. This is a transcription that bears the strength and weaknesses of oral delivery. It is not meant to be a polished essay. An audio copy of the sermon on CD is available by request at (860) 563-8286. An audio version of this sermon may also be found on the church website at www.wethefc.com. 1
Sermon Text 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed! and no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. 4 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. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body Jews or Greeks, slaves or free and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 2
Introduction 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. The largest portion of Scripture dedicated to the issue of spiritual gifts is 1 Corinthians 12-14. The reason Paul spends three chapters talking about the issue of spiritual gifts isn t because he thought, it would be good to teach a class on spiritual gifts. For example, we chose to preach and teach on the topic of spiritual gifts because we felt it would be good and helpful for us as we seek to live out Our Way of Life. Our final affirmation in Our Way of Life comes from Matthew 24-25. The title for this affirmation is Kingdom Come. From the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 24-25, we learn that while we wait for the soon return of Jesus, we do so by investing the talents given to us for the sake of the kingdom of God. And so we affirm, I will invest what I have been given for the work of God s kingdom. Well what have I been given to invest in the work of God s kingdom? For starters, each one of us has been given spiritual gifts to use and invest in the work of the kingdom of God. Peter says it this way in 1 Peter 4, The end of all things is at hand; therefore... As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God s varied grace. And so this is what is motivating us to preach and teach on the issue of spiritual gifts. The goal of this series is to help us be good stewards of what God has given us for the sake of the advance of God s kingdom. We want to help you find a meaningful and joyful way to serve others in the body of Christ. But what was it that motivated Paul to spend three chapters on spiritual gifts in this letter to the church at Corinth? Well, you are not very long in this letter and you discover that this church was riddled with division. In 1 Corinthians 1:10-11, Paul says, I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. He went on to reveal that he had received a report that there is quarreling among you. If you have ever been in a church where there is a contentious and divisive spirit, you know that this spirit shows up everywhere in the church. And so it was in Corinth. As the letter unfolds, Paul addresses one issue after another where their division is showing up in the church. So when you get to 1 Corinthians 12-14, you discover that this spirit of division is showing up in their practice of the spiritual gifts. 3
What you discover in these three chapters, is that the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues was at the center of the controversy and division within the church at Corinth. When we talk about the gift of speaking in tongues, we are referring to the phenomena first associated with the day of Pentecost, when the disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit. spoke in languages unknown to them but understood by the people gathered in Jerusalem from all over the Roman Empire. Many of those people confessed Jesus as L:ord that day. In 1 Corinthians 12-14, the gift of tongues is being used in a worship setting and here it is a language that is unknown to both the speaker and to those hearing the speaker. And so later, in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul insists that if this gift is used in a worship setting there needs to be someone who can interpret what is being said. In the church at Corinth, the division surrounding the gift of speaking in tongues was not so much centered around whether or not it was a spiritual gift to be used in the church. That tends to be where some of the divisions rest in our contemporary church culture. There are those on one side who say that speaking in tongues is the definitive sign of receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Then there are those on the extreme other side who would say that the gift of tongues has ceased and is no longer a spiritual gift to be exercised in the church. But that was not the center of division in the church at Corinth. Paul was not questioning the legitimacy of the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. In fact, he says in 1 Corinthians 14:5 that he wishes all could experience the gift of speaking in tongues because of its edifying nature to the one who practices the gift. So the problem in Corinth does not revolve around the legitimacy of the gift. Instead, the cause for division in the Corinthian church over the matter of speaking in tongues, had more to do with the abuse of this gift when they would gather to worship as a church body. First of all, the gift of speaking in tongues had become unduly elevated above all the other gifts, to the point that in some of their minds the exercising of this gift became the definitive sign of those who were truly people of the Spirit. Consequently, the more this gift was elevated above the other gifts, the more disorderly their worship became and no one could understand what was being said. Consequently, the worship service was no longer intelligible and orderly. It was to the point where Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:23 that if someone from the outside of the church comes in and observes what you are doing they will conclude that you are out of your minds. So Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12-14, is bringing a corrective to their understanding of the spiritual gifts. But his teaching goes deeper than just putting up practical boundaries around the exercising of the spiritual gifts and particularly speaking in tongues. The deeper issue Paul addresses in these three chapters centers around this question: What 4
are the marks of the Holy Spirit in the church? What does it really mean to be people of the Spirit? He introduces this topic, right in the beginning of this passage. I know that in most of your Bibles, 1 Corinthians 12:1 begins as follows, Now concerning spiritual gifts. No doubt, that is the topic of the context of these three chapters. But the word used here is a different word than what is commonly used for spiritual gifts. In fact, in some of your English translations, the word gift is in italics to underscore that this is not the literal translation of the Greek word Paul uses here. In a more broader sense, Paul is saying, Now concerning matters of the Spirit. In other words, when talking about spiritual gifts and addressing the abuse of the gift of tongues in the church at Corinth, the concern here is that when you speak of spiritual gifts, what really is of the Spirit? What does it really mean to be a people of the Spirit? This is the question we are going to seek to answer over the next several weeks as we make our way through these three chapters. In doing so, we will learn something of the situation in Corinth and how Paul seeks to correct their thinking. But we don t want to stay in Corinth. We don t live in Corinth. In taking a look at these three chapters, we want to learn what it means for us to be people of the Spirit. We want to address any abuses we may have when it comes to exercising the spiritual gifts, because we want to be people of the Spirit. We too need correctives in our approach to the spiritual gifts. And of course, we pray that this will lead to a church empowered to serve as we serve one another through the use of our spiritual gifts. So what does 1 Corinthians 12 teach us about being people of the Spirit? People of the Spirit Exalt Jesus as Lord Because of our curiosity with spiritual gifts, the first three verses are often overlooked. Our tendency is to move quickly to verse 4 where Paul dives into the issue of spiritual gifts. That is unfortunate, because when it comes to being people of the Spirit there is something very important Paul is communicating at the beginning of this chapter. The point Paul is making here is that the real evidence of the Spirit s activity is not found in these inspired utterances such as speaking in tongues. Referring in verse 2 to their lives before they came to Christ and when they would go down to the pagan temple to worship idols, no doubt there were inspired utterances that were part of their worship experience in worshiping idols. But those utterances were not of the Spirit of God. And so it is not the mere activity of speaking in tongues that gives evidence to the presence of the Holy Spirit. Rather, Paul says that the ultimate mark of the Spirit of God is not found in unintelligible speech but in what is intelligible. The true mark of the Spirit 5
is found in the intelligible confession that Jesus is Lord. He says in verse 3, no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. This was the confession of the early church, Jesus is Lord. This was the litmus test of the early church. Didn t Paul say in Romans 10:9, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. But how is it that one comes to make such a bold confession? How is it that one comes to see that this Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Son of God, risen from the dead? At the beginning of this letter, in the first chapter, Paul says that such a notion is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to the Gentiles. It is a stumbling block to Jews because to call Jesus Lord is to take the Jewish sacred name for God, Yahweh, and apply to Jesus. In fact the confession in this verse literally reads, The Lord is Jesus. Jesus is the risen and Exalted One. When Jesus referred to himself with that sacred name, I Am, in John 8, the religious leaders were ready to stone him for blasphemy. And then of course, Paul says of the pagan Gentile, such a notion that Jesus is Lord was folly. This claim that Jesus is Lord is an exclusive claim that leaves no room for other gods and it refuses to bow the knee to Caesar. And so this confession was not just a simple confession one had to make in order to be saved. For many early Christians, this counter-cultural confession was a call for their allegiance to Jesus and it was a confession that led them to the Coliseum where they gave their lives as early martyrs for the faith. Paul says at the beginning of this letter, in 1 Corinthians 2, that this confession that is a stumbling block to the Jew and folly to the Gentile is embraced not because man in his reason has figured it out to be true. No, this is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that the natural person does not accept the things of God. Rather, in verse 10 he says that these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. Gordon Fee says it this way, the one who is indwelt by the Spirit of the living God is led to the ultimate Christian confession: The Lord of all the universe is by his resurrection from the dead none other than Jesus, the crucified and risen one. 1 From the get-go, Paul is saying that speaking in tongues is not the quintessential evidence of the presence of the Spirit of God at work among you. Rather, Gordon Fee concludes, the ultimate criterion of the Spirit s activity is the exaltation of Jesus as Lord. 2 That is the role of the Holy Spirit in this world. The role of the Holy Spirit is to point us to Jesus! Jesus said of the Holy Spirit in John 16:14, He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. And so, a people of the Spirit, a Spiritfilled church, is first of all a church, a people, who lift up and proclaim the name of Jesus. We profess that Jesus is Savior and Lord and he is the focal point of our worship. 6
People of the Spirit Embrace the Diversity of the Gifts The second thing we discover about the demonstration of the Spirit within the church is that the manifestation of the Spirit in a church setting is not seen in our uniformity. In other words, the evidence that we are people of the Spirit is not demonstrated through everyone sharing one gift that is elevated above all the other spiritual gifts. Instead, the evidence that we are people of the Spirit is quite the contrary. The presence of the Spirit of God among us is demonstrated in the diversity of the gifts present among us. This diversity that exists through the differing gifts in the body of Christ is a reflection of the diversity that exists in the Triune God. That is how Paul begins making his point in verses 4-6. Once again, the Trinity becomes the foundation for understanding the church and spiritual gifts. He writes, Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord (Jesus); and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God (the Father) who empowers them all in everyone. Remember what we said about the church. The church is the presence of God in this world. And so through the diversity of our differing gifts, each of us using these gifts to serve each other, we are demonstrating what the love of God looks like as we joyfully use our gifts for the common good. Paul drives home his point in verse 7 by saying To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. And then he goes on to list several different spiritual gifts. But his point is that each gift is a manifestation of the Spirit. It is not just speaking in tongues that qualifies as a manifestation of the Spirit. In fact, he puts the gift of tongues at the end of this list, not to suggest that it is a lesser gift than the other gifts. But because the church at Corinth had unduly elevated this gift, Paul put it at the bottom of the list to illustrate that it is no more or less a manifestation of the Spirit than any other gift. In fact, as he lists the gifts, repeatedly he identifies them as coming from the Spirit. And so he concludes his thought in verse 11 by saying, All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. In making his point, Paul gives us a sampling of some of the spiritual gifts that exist in the church. Here are the spiritual gifts he lists in this passage: the utterance of wisdom, the utterance of knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, prophecy, distinguishing spirits and then he concludes the list with the gift of speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues. He doesn t define these gifts, he just lists them. They seem to range from teaching kinds of gifts to gifts where the supernatural power of God might be seen through healings and miracles and God inspired utterances. 7
It is one thing for us to come to this text this morning and identify how the church at Corinth needed to be corrected in their understanding of the spiritual gifts. In fact, it is kind of easy to sit here and to take note of how this church was out of balance by giving a disproportionate amount of deference to one spiritual gift over the others. But when I look at the gifts listed in this portion of the passage, I wonder if we might be guilty of the same thing, perhaps on the other end of the spectrum. Clearly the gifts listed here tilt towards the display of the miraculous. Do we really embrace the full diversity of the gifts in our church family? Or do we just embrace the gifts that are less miraculous and more natural kinds of gifts? And if we do minimize the miraculous gifts, the full diversity of the gifts, are we in essence failing to truly be people of the Spirit? In preparation for this sermon series, I listened to a sermon by Tope Koleoso. He is an African Pastor who pastors a church in Great Britain and he was speaking at a Desiring God Conference, hosted by John Piper. The topic he was asked to address is a mouthful, Sovereign Grace, Spiritual Gifts, and the Pastor: How Should a Reformed Pastor be Charismatic? He began by saying that the Sovereign grace of God and the spiritual gifts are not opposed to each other. He said of bringing these two things together, it can be done, it should be done and it must be done. If we are going to talk about the gospel in it s full-orbed beauty and power then these things of the Spirit are not optional. They are necessary and vital. 3 The thing in our evangelical circle that causes us to be reticent to embrace the full diversity of the gifts that the Spirit of God has given to the church are the abuses we see on display. We are governed by fear. We would not say that speaking in tongues is the sign of the Spirit of God in us. We would not embrace the Word of Faith movement and the Prosperity Gospel that tells us that if you are sick it is because of a lack of faith or that God promises wealth to those who sow a seed of faith by giving of their resources to get a blessing from God. But have we swung the pendulum all the way to the other side that we have removed the anticipation that displays of the power of God be among us through the spiritual gifts? J. B. Phillips wrote a book about the early church in the Book of Acts where he concluded, Yet we cannot help feeling disturbed as well as moved, for this surely is the church as it was meant to be... If they were uncomplicated and naïve by modern standards, we have ruefully to admit that they were open on the God-ward side in a way that is almost unknown today. 4 Have we become too complicated? Have we become too sophisticated to even believe that the Spirit of God might want to come with manifestations of power among us? If we are going to receive Paul s instructions here, then we are embracing the full 8
diversity of spiritual gifts that God has for the church so that we can reflect the presence of God among us. That means we do not need to be afraid to pray for healing. I am not saying we name it and claim it. I am not saying that God will always respond with a yes to our prayer. But let us not shut ourselves off to the display of the power of God among us because we have so domesticated this thing called the church and virtually removed the supernatural displays of God s grace and power in our presence. People of the Spirit are a people who embrace the full diversity of the gifts that the Spirit of God has for the church. People of the Spirit Promote the Unity of the Body The final thing we discover about people of the Spirit is that we are marked by a unity of the Spirit. Unity is different than uniformity. Uniformity means that we all need to be the same. In the context here, uniformity was seen in elevating the gift of speaking in tongues as the singular manifestation of the Spirit. This was the gift in the church at Corinth to aspire to if you wanted to be spiritual. Unity, on the other hand, embraces the diversity of the gifts and makes sure that everyone and their gifts are valued and deemed important to the body of Christ. No one gift is more of the manifestation of the Spirit than the other. That is the point Paul is making with the rest of the chapter. Starting in verse 12, Paul says, For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body Jews or Greeks, slaves or free and all were made to drink of one Spirit. Paul goes on to use the physical body as an illustration of the body of Christ, the church. In his illustration, he speaks to both groups of people. He first speaks to the one who feels insignificant in the church at Corinth because they don t have the gift of speaking in tongues. This person feels like the foot who looks up to the hand and concludes that he doesn t belong to the body because he is not a hand. Or the ear who looks to the eye and feels like he doesn t belong because he is not an eye. We all know, that if the body were all one part, it would cease to be the body. We need the foot and the hand and the eye and the ear. And so to encourage the one who felt as though they did not have a manifestation of the Spirit because they didn t have the gift of tongues, Paul encourages assures them that they are significant in the body. In fact he says in verse 18, But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. In other words, you are here for a reason and you are needed. Everyone has a gift and everyone helps make up the body. No one should come to the conclusion that they are not needed in the body. God has put you here for a reason and we need you. 9
Conclusion Then Paul talks to the one who may think that their gift is in someway superior to others. And he admonishes them to not look down on another person in the body of Christ and say, I have no need of you. He says it this way in verse 21, The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. In fact, Paul says in verse 22, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. In using this illustration, Paul is referring to parts of the body that are either internal organs, or parts of the body for the sake of decency are covered up. In others words, because they are not plainly visible, does not mean that they aren t unimportant. Quite the contrary. Our internal organs are vital. So it is with the gifts that don t seem to be overly visible. In fact, the listing of the gifts at the end of this chapter include the gifts of helping and administration. One can only imagine what the attitude was in the church at Corinth with those who put a premium on speaking in tongues as the manifestation of the Spirit. These gifts, Paul says, are as much a manifestation of the Spirit of God as the outwardly visible miraculous gifts. It is upon these gifts, the seemingly lesser gifts, Paul tells the church at Corinth in verse 23, to bestow honor on them. May you know this morning that you are a part of this church body for a reason. We need you and your gifts. I wonder at times if we have our own pecking order of spiritual gifts that we elevate to a point where some may think they have little if anything to offer. You can t teach and you can t sing and your thing may not be children s ministry or teens. So what can I do? Are you an intercessor? Pray! Are you an encourager. Encourage! Do you just like to do things with your hands? Fix things! Do you like to tell people where to go? Direct traffic or be an usher! Do you have a passion to share your faith? Evangelize! Are you filled with faith? Pray with great faith! Are you a leader? Lead! Do you have some of the miraculous gifts? Give the touch of healing prayer to the sick! We are all part of one body and we all have a role to play. No one is dispensable and no gift is not needed. People of the Spirit promote our unity as a body of Christ. We are one. We want to be known as people of the Spirit. What does that look like? Here is what we have learned today. As people of the Spirit, we confess Jesus to be Lord of all and we exalt the name of Jesus. As people of the Spirit, we embrace the full diversity of the spiritual gifts, recognizing that all the spiritual gifts are a manifestation of the Spirit. We want the fullness of what God has for us a church family. And finally, as people of the Spirit we embrace our oneness in Christ. We need each other. No one is dispensable and so whatever gifts God has given you, use them to serve the body of Christ. May 10
there truly be no division in the body and may the members of the body have the same care for one another. May we be people of the Spirit. 1 Gordon Fee The First Epistle to the Corinthians Revised Edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014) 645 2 Ibid., 645 3 Tope Koleoso Sovereign Grace, Spiritual Gifts, and the Pastor: How Should a Reformed Pastor be Charismatic? February 5, 2013 www.desiringgod.org 4 J. B. Phillips, The Young Church in Action (New York, 1949) vii by Dr. Scott Solberg - All rights reserved 11
Sermon Title: People of the Spirit Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 Sermon Date: January 29, 2017 Getting To Know Me Questions 1. If you had to move and could only take three things with you, what would you take? 2. What was the center of warmth in your life when you were 7 years old? 3. Give three words to describe how you feel right now. Diving Into The Word 4. Read 1 Corinthians 12:1-3. What are we confessing to be true when we confess that Jesus is Lord? How does this confession impact how we live? 5. Read 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. What do you learn about diversity in the body of Christ from this passage? How do the spiritual gifts listed in this passage encourage you to be bold in your faith and expectant in your prayers? 6. Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-20. How should you feel about yourself with regards to the body of Christ? How is verse 18 an encouragement to you? What causes you to not feel a vital part of the body? 7. Read 1 Corinthians 12:21-26. How should you feel about others in the body of Christ? How have you seen verses 25-26 on display in your own Community Group or the church? What are ways we can give honor to those who are quietly using their spiritual gifts in the church? Taking It Home 8. Ask God to lay on your heart someone to encourage this week. Ask God to especially direct your attention to someone who is actively using their gifts in the body of Christ. What can you do to encourage that person? 9. Pray daily this week for the filling of the Holy Spirit and look for a situation where you can pray boldly for God to show himself in a powerful way. 12