| May 19, 2002 | Spiritual Gifts to the Church | 1st Corinthians 12, 13 |
The Lord Jesus is about to be taken and crucified, soon He is
going to leave His followers here on the earth, but first He makes
them this amazing promise. Those that believe on Him and follow
Him will do the same things that Jesus did, and even greater things
besides. This is an incredible promise, but generally we don't
see it happening. Why not? Because God does not do things our
way, He does things His way, and unless we get into line with
the way He does things, things don't get done.
Last week I briefly mentioned spiritual gifts and their place
in the church, I mentioned that it would be good if everyone took
the time this week to read 1st Corinthians chapter 12. Today you
get to find out why I said that; but first, we need to go to Ephesians
chapter 4.
If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn
to Ephesians 4:7 "But unto every one of us is given grace
according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
:8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity
captive, and gave gifts unto men." Skip to verse 11, here
are the gifts:
:11 "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and
some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
:12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ:
:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge
of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ:"
The most important gifts that Jesus gives to His church are people.
Different people, people in whom He has put certain abilities,
not for their own la-de-dah, but for the building
up of His church. God does not give us gifts just for our own
benefit, He gives us gifts for the benefit of others, and these
gifts are placed within certain people, and then these people
are used within the church, to build up believers. The goal of
all this is for everyone in the church to grow up into spiritual
maturity, the ideal is for everyone in the church to be spiritually
wise and mature, like an apostle Paul, or an apostle John. A person
in whom there is a remarkable spiritual and character resemblance
to Jesus Christ.
Human nature being what it is, sometimes spiritual gifts can be
used for selfish purposes. Apparently that was happening in the
church in Corinth, and in 1st Corinthians chapter 12, Paul is
explaining what needs to happen to get those immature and self
centered Christians back on track. That church apparently had
a number of people with a variety of spiritual gifts, but they
were exercising their gifts in a carnal, fleshly fashion. They
were being egotistical, self centered, narrow minded. Have you
ever been around any churches, or ever heard of any churches that
had an attitude like: "my church is better than your church,
my spirituality is better than your spirituality, if you aren't
doing things like I do things, then you aren't sanctified, and
probably you aren't even saved."
Those were the sort of problems and attitudes that the apostle
Paul had to deal with here, the Holy Spirit was pouring out blessings
on this church, an abundance of gifts, but it was a church full
of immature believers who didn't know how to act, or what to do
with what they had been given.
As we read through this chapter, keep in mind three basic ideas:
Why does God give spiritual gifts to believers?
What are they for? And how does God
expect spiritual gifts to be used?
1Corinthians 12:1 "Now concerning spiritual gifts,
brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
:2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb
idols, even as ye were led.
:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by
the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man
can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." We
will come back to this later.
Verse 4: "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same
Spirit.
:5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same
Lord.
:6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same
God which worketh all in all.
:7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to
profit withal.
:8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom;
to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
:9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another
the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
:10 To another the working of miracles; to another
prophecy; to another discerning of spirits;
to another divers kinds of tongues; to another
the interpretation of tongues:
:11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing
to every man severally as he will."
Within the whole body of Christianity, there are many variations
of how Christians worship and exercise their various spiritual
gifts. For a number of years we fellowshipped with a church that
was big on missions and missionaries, and we saw videos of native
Christians and believers in other parts of the world. Let me tell
you something: not everybody worships Jesus in the same fashion
that we do here.
Some people actually think that there is only one correct way
to worship God and praise Jesus. It's "My way or the highway."
Those people really need to get out more. True Christian worship
is not constrained by a box called "white North America,"
but some folks think it is.
Anyway, one aspect of that attitude -you are like me or you are
wrong- is a real division between those who call themselves Charismatic
and those who won't have anything to do with it. That word gifts
in verse 4, that is the Greek word charisma, from
which we get the word charismatic.
For those of you that are new Christians, a charismatic church
is generally defined as a church in which all the
spiritual gifts are in evidence, and those churches that are not
charismatic generally focus in on the part about those folks speaking
in tongues.
Something I want all of us to understand, is that any church
that has real Christians in it, is by definition
a charismatic church. That's because real Christians
have all been given spiritual gifts, or charisms,
every one of us, without exception, if we are truly saved, has
a spiritual gift. The only way that you can have a church that
is not charismatic, as the Bible defines it, is to have a church
without any Christians in it. Bummer. Not even the back row Baptists
would want that. (Can I have an Amen from back there?) (Thank
you)
Now; having said that, the disagreements come because of how,
or which ones of those charismatic gifts are exercised. Some churches
believe that according to 1st Corinthians 13 verses 8 through
10, tongues and prophecies and supernaturally revealed knowledge
are no longer operative within the church. Period. That's it,
it stopped 1900 years ago, it's over.
Other churches go to the opposite extreme and teach that unless
you speak in tongues, and jump the pews, you aren't really saved,
and if you don't agree, why you're just plain backslidden. (As
anybody can plainly see.)
And between those two positions, sometimes there seems to be no
middle ground, and seldom any compromise. I have
certainly known some who would not compromise. But what
does the Bible say? Verse 4:
"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit."
That is very simple, it means exactly what it says. There is one
Holy Spirit, and He gives a diversity of gifts, a variety of different
gifts to different people within the church. Verse 5:
"And there are differences of administrations, but the same
Lord." The word for differences is the same word as diversities
in the previous verse, all different kinds of administrations,
and that word administrations is the same Greek word as
the word for deacons. Which means a servant, that's what a deacon
is; a minister to others, someone who serves and takes care of
others. Depending on what your church background might be, you
might have a different concept of what a deacon is, but the Bible
defines a deacon as a servant.
That same Holy Spirit gives a variety of spiritual gifts to a
variety of people to serve each other, minister to each other,
to serve the various believers within the church. That is the
whole reason God does this. Verse 6:
"And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same
God which worketh all in all." All kinds of differences of
operations, that word for operations means effects, actions, workings,
just like the word work further on in the verse. God working
in all His people, in all kinds of different ways, for the benefit
of all of them.
What we are seeing here is that God uses all different kinds of
gifts in all different kinds of people, working in all different
kinds of ways, to accomplish similar goals; making people
more like His Son; Jesus Christ.
Within this congregation here, we have a remarkable collection
of interesting people. Now either we all just happened to wander
in, because it seemed like a good idea at the time, or else God
has brought each us here for a reason. If it was
God that brought us here, then He also has plans
for us to be especially ministered to and built up by the other
believers within this assembly, and
also for each of us to minister to the others in this assembly
and build them up.
Which means that each of us here has gifts to minister
to someone else here, and each of us
is here for someone else's benefit. Not just your
own. Therefore it also means that there is someone else here -besides
me- who was brought here by God especially to minister to
you. Or to me. Each of us has a spiritual gift to benefit
someone else, that is why God brought us here, to this place.
His game plan and goal is that we use those gifts to minister
to each other.
With that thought in mind, go back to the disagreement about whether
a church should be charismatic or not, or be using or not using
certain so-called charismatic gifts or not, and look at the big
picture. If God knows that you need to be in a church
where a certain kind of spiritual gift has been placed within
certain of it's members, then He will direct you to that church,
and that ministry. His goal is for you to grow spiritually, and
since He knows which assemblies of believers have the gifts needed
to minister to you, then that is where He will send you.
If you feel that God has directed you to this church, it is because
there are certain spiritual gifts available here, within certain
various members here, that God knows will be edifying to you,
useful in building you up spiritually.
So it is not a question of whether or not this church
is like that church, or your church is not
like my church, or you do this and we do that; - it is
a question of what gifts does a particular church have,
that God has put there, to meet somebody's particular spiritual,
physical or emotional need? It is not a question of what
is a particular church doing, it is a question of
whether or not the believers that God has brought together in
a particular assembly are using those specific gifts the Holy
Spirit has given them.
If they are using those gifts that God gave them, then that assembly
of believers will be edified. If not, then the believers in that
assembly will be under nourished. They won't grow like they should.
I suppose that within the wisdom of God, some believers need to
be in a church where there are more "visible manifestations"
of the power and working of the Holy Spirit. Praise God, as long
as they grow to become more like Jesus, that is wonderful. God
in His wisdom has also apparently decided that other believers
need to be in a fellowship where less "remarkable"(?)
gifts are being exercised; the only thing that counts in the long
run is: are the believers in that assembly becoming more
like Jesus Christ? That's the only thing that matters.
It doesn't matter if a church is Pentecostal or not, conservative
and dignified or not, traditional, liturgical, evangelical, you
name it: a normal, healthy church is a scripturally
charismatic church, where the believers are using the gifts that
the Holy Spirit gave them, to build each other up. That's
what matters.
That's what verse 7 is saying: "The manifestation of the
Spirit is given to every man - every believer- to profit."
The reason God does this is to make us more like Jesus.
Then in verses 8 through 10, there is a list of those gifts, and
in verse 11, we find that it is the Holy Spirit that makes the
decision about who has what gift. So none of us have anything
to brag about having or not having. In verses 12 through the end
of the chapter, Paul deals with the idea that some of the believers
might have the big head because they thought their gift was better
than somebody else had, and maybe somebody else was bummed out
because they thought they had an inferior gift. He straightens
both those mistakes out, let's go ahead and read that :
Verse 12: "For as the body is one, and hath many members,
and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body:
so also is Christ.
:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether
we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free;
and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
:14 For the body is not one member, but many.
:15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not
of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
:16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not
of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
:17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the
hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the
smelling?
:18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the
body, as it hath pleased him.
:19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?
:20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.
:21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee:
nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
:22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be
more feeble, are necessary:
:23 And those members of the body, which we think to be
less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and
our uncomely -or unattractive- parts have more abundant
comeliness." They become more attractive.
:24 For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered
the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part
which lacked."
God honors those parts of His church that are needy. He loves
to meet those needs, honor them with His presence, His power,
His grace. Verse 25:
"That there should be no schism -or division- in the body;
but that the members should have the same care one for
another."
God honors those within the church that are needy by using others
in His church to meet those needs. Ministering, deaconing -new
word- deaconessing- another new word- to each other.
Verse 26: "And whether one member suffer, all the members
suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice
with it.
:27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
:28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily
prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of
healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues."
Here we see God's priority for a healthy church. The Psalmist
tells us that God has magnified His Word even above His name,
(138:2) so it is not surprising that God sets a high value upon
those in the church that would teach and preach His Word. The
apostles passed the words of our Lord on to us, and our first
priority is to teach them to others, then everything else follows
after that.
Then he goes on to ask the question: "Do all the believers
have each and every spiritual gift?" And the answer is no,
verse 29: "Are all apostles? are all prophets?
are all teachers? are all workers of miracles?
:30 Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues?
do all interpret?
:31 But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you
a more excellent way."
Some times we hear about churches where the preacher becomes a
sort of cult figure, somebody very powerful within that church,
the church gets into a sort of idol worship, everything in that
church revolves around that one person. That is unhealthy, and
it is abnormal. In a normal healthy church, that would not happen.
In a normal healthy church, there is an awareness that everyone
is needed and the spiritual gifts of all the believers are valuable,
and are being used, so the focus is not on just one or two people.
The best gifts are those that revolve around teaching and sharing
the Word of God, using the Word to help others, but none of the
gifts are of no account. What matters is what we use our particular
gift for, what we use it to accomplish; building up another believer.
That's what he is talking about in verse 31 where he tells us
about a more excellent way. Chapter 13 tells us what it is; verse
1: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or
a tinkling cymbal."
Charity: what is charity? What does that word mean? It is the
Greek word agape, that pure love of God that He puts in us once
we get saved. It is not the sort of love that any of us can have
naturally, no human affection comes close. It is the love that
only a believer can have, because it is divine love, Holy Spirit
love, the love of God worked out in us towards others.
So I want us to read through these verses, and where it says charity,
I want us to use "agape love" instead.
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and
have not agape love, I am become as sounding brass, or
a tinkling cymbal.
:2 "And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand
all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith,
so that I could remove mountains, and have not agape love, I am
nothing."
Do you see how our priorities are different from God's priorities?
It doesn't matter what kind of a spiritual giant we might think
we are, unless we have that love that Jesus had, that love that
said: "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."
- Unless we have that, we are nothing.
Verse 3: "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the
poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not
agape love, it profiteth me nothing.
:4 Agape love suffereth long, and is kind; agape love envieth
not; agape love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,"
Kind of makes it tough to be proud of who we are, or what we do,
huh? Makes it hard to get impatient with someone else that is
a pain, huh? Shows us how far we still have to go, doesn't it?
Maybe for someone sitting out there looking at this, you're thinking:
"Wow; I'm not even in the game, Maybe I'm not even a Christian,
because this is totally foreign to me, I am nothing like this."
That's possible. Maybe you need to come and talk to me later,
maybe you need to find out if you only thought you were a Christian,
but really you aren't. Better to find out now, than one second
after you're dead.
Verse 5: "Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her
own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;"
Are you the sort of person that when you see someone else slip
and fall spiritually, or morally, something inside you is secretly
satisfied or pleased?
Do you find that you have a need to go and tell someone else about
what you have learned - about the person who slips? If we could
really get these two verses working in our lives, most of our
gossip problems would go away. We would see something questionable,
and think the best of it. We would give that other person the
benefit of the doubt, and then we would forget it, it would slip
away from our mind. We would have no inclination to pass it on
to someone else.
Agape love would also make us quit the awful habit of trying to
make ourselves look good by making someone else look bad. If we
had these verses really at work in our hearts and minds, we would
quit that.
And verse 7 goes right along with it: "Beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."
Boy; wouldn't that make us easier to live with? Wouldn't it make
us easier to be around? Wouldn't it make church a safer place
to be, with less risk of getting hurt, getting burned?
This next part is where some of the different denominations fall
out. Some church groups think that the next several verses mean
that some of the charismatic gifts will cease at some time during
the church age; lets read them and then talk about them.
Verse 8: "Agape love never faileth: but whether there
be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues,
they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall
vanish away.
:9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
:10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is
in part shall be done away."
The argument goes something like this: during the apostolic time
of the church, the New Testament was still in the process of being
written, and the Holy Spirit gave these particular spiritual gifts;
tongues, prophecies, knowledge- to equip the church with what
it needed during that time. But after the New Testament canon
of scripture was completed, then these particular gifts would
disappear, because they were no longer necessary. After God's
perfect Word, the Bible, was completed, then that which was in
part, the charismatic gifts of tongues, and prophecies and knowledge
would vanish away. They would no longer be necessary. Well, that
might be what it means, but the rest of the chapter seems to me
to indicate something quite different; verse 11:
"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as
a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put
away childish things.
:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:
now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
Verse 10 said when that which was perfect was come, then that
which was in part would vanish away. Well, the Bible is certainly
perfect, but is that the perfect that was being referred to? Verse
12 seems to me that maybe it is something else. Verse 12 to me
would probably refer to when we stand face to face with Jesus.
That is the time when we know perfectly, instead of knowing just
in part.
I am not a person who has ever had what you might call a "Pentecostal
experience," -as it is commonly thought of- I have never
spoken in tongues, so I have no first hand knowledge of that particular
gift.
I have been in situations where I have felt the moving and leading
of the Holy Spirit in a very powerful way. I have been in situations
where others around me have been exercising the gift of tongues
and my spirit has been greatly blessed within me.
And I have also been in situations where some have spoken in tongues
and my spirit responded like someone was scraping their fingernails
down a blackboard. That is because the enemy can counterfeit the
things of God, and spiritual discernment is necessary. Witch doctors
and demon worshipers can speak in tongues too. Merely speaking
in tongues doesn't prove anything, Satan can teach his followers
how to do that, and he has. For thousands of years. It's no big
deal.
That is why in chapter 12, verse 3, Paul says that no one speaking
by the spirit of God can call Jesus accursed. Why would he say
that? Because a person speaking in a tongue from a demon could
very possibly call Jesus all kinds of rude and blasphemous things,
curse God, and Paul does not want Christians to simply accept
everything at face value, or be ignorant of spiritual warfare.
God does not give us these wonderful spiritual gifts just like
they were Christmas toys, something to play with, something to
amuse ourselves, He gives us these gifts to strengthen His church.
That is why Paul tells us finally in verse 13 of chapter 13: "And
now abideth faith, hope, agape love, these three; but the greatest
of these is agape love." Jesus told us"Greater
love hath no one man than this: that a man lay down his life for
his friends." What would you do for your friends?
We have spent a couple months of Bible study in 1st John 4, trying
to learn what it means to love our brother. One way that we can
love our brother and our sister is to use the gifts that God the
Holy Spirit has given us to bless them with. What are you doing
with the things that God has given you? Hidden them in a napkin
and gone and buried them, planning to dig them up when Jesus comes
back? That ought to please the Master just dandy, don't you think?
There is much that you can be doing for Jesus, there are a lot
of needs within this body of believers, and also within your circle
of Christian and non-Christian friends. God has given you gifts
to help meet those needs; what are you doing with your gifts?
We have still not even scratched the surface of the topic of spiritual
gifts, but I wanted to get you thinking about it. Jesus has entrusted
you with a great blessing, and He wants you to give it to somebody
that needs it. Right now, you are like a person with a backpack
full of food and medicine, and you know a bunch of hungry and
sick people. What happens next? What are you going to do about
it? Throw the backpack in the corner and forget about it?
It was just a few hours before He was crucified when Jesus said:
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me,
the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works
than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." He
wouldn't have said it if it wasn't true. He wouldn't have said
it then if it wasn't really important. He wouldn't
have said "Verily, verily" unless it was something that
we need to make a major priority in our lives. That was His promise,
and now the Holy Spirit has given us the tools to make it happen;
a spiritual gift from God. What will you do with your spiritual
gift? Who will you bless with it?
If there is someone here that God has been speaking to you this
morning, and you think that maybe none of this applies to you,
if you think that maybe you are on the outside looking in - then
you need to find out. You need to know where you stand with God.
Have you ever received Jesus Christ as your Savior? Have you ever
really done business with God? Do you know the reality of a changed
life, your sins washed away, the burden of sin gone? You can.
If there is any doubt in your mind, don't put it off. Come and
talk to me and we will settle it today. Jesus Christ promised
that every one who comes to Him, He will receive, He will save.
If you have never come to Christ, do it today.