Sermon Tone Analysis

Spiritual Gifts

Spiritual Gifts.

What are they?

How are they different from talents?

Why does God give them to us? That’s what we are going to look at over the next 30 minutes or so.

But before we get there, we need to fix some story problems.

We all view the world through stories that live inside our mind.

These stories tell us how the world works, and we interpret everything we experience through these stories.

Frequently, these stories are faulty, and we need to realign our stories with reality.

Two people can encounter the same experience but have two radically different reactions, all because our stories are different.

How you react when a police officer pulls you over will depend greatly on the stories running through your mind.

If someone reacts differently than you to a situation, it’s because they are viewing the world through a different set of stories.

How we view spiritual gifts depends on the stories we view the world through.

So, before we look at Spiritual Gifts we need to align our stories about the world we live in, and who we were created to be, with what Scripture says.

Genesis 1:1–2 (ESV)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Spirit = Breath or Wind

In these two verses we see that when God created the universe, the earth was “without form” (In Hebrew it’s “tohu wa vohu”) – unformed and uninhabited – wild and waste – in one word, it was “Chaos.”

Creation was also “void” (empty, barren), and full of darkness.

And over the course of the first 36 verses of the Bible we see God, through the Holy Spirit, bringing order and form, bringing fruitfulness and fullness, and bringing light.

The first thing God does, through the Holy Spirit, is bring light where there is darkness.

Then during the first three days of creation, God brings form, order, boundaries, and structure.

In the next three days of creation, he goes back and fills those forms, structures, and boundaries with fruitfulness and fullness.

And finally, on the sixth day God created humanity, male and female, and commissioned them with what I call the Genesis Commission.

This is the beginning of our Foundational Identity.

Foundational Identity

Foundational Identity: Genesis Commission

Genesis 1:26-28

Genesis 1:26–28 (ESV)

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

And God blessed them.

And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Be Fruitful, Multiply, Fill the earth, Subdue it, and have Dominion over it.

– Humans, men and women, were designed to imitate what God has done in creation; we bear his image.

We were created and commissioned to bring form and structure where there is chaos, to bring fullness and fruitfulness where there is barrenness and emptiness, and to bring light where there is darkness.

God created men and women in his image to serve all of creation as co-regents and stewards of all God created.

And we see this commission repeated over and over in scripture.

See also Genesis 9:1, 7; Genesis 16:10; Genesis 17:6-7; Genesis 22:16-18; Genesis 26:23-24; Genesis 28:1-4; Genesis 35:9-12; Genesis 41:50-52; Genesis 48:2-4; Exodus 1:7; Leviticus 26:9-13; Deuteronomy 7:12-14; Jeremiah 23:3-4; John 15:7-8, 16

Genesis 9:1, 7 (Noah and Children); Genesis 16:10 (Hagar); Genesis 17:6-7 (Abraham); Genesis 22:16-18 (Abraham); Genesis 26:23-24 (Isaac); Genesis 28:1-4 (Isaac to Jacob); Genesis 35:9-12 (God to Jacob); Genesis 41:50-52 (Joseph to Ephraim); Genesis 48:2-4 (Jacob to Joseph); Exodus 1:7 (Description of Israel in Egypt); Leviticus 26:9-13 (God to Israel); Deuteronomy 7:12-14 (Moses to Israel); Jeremiah 23:3-4 (God to Israel); John 15:7-8, 16 (Jesus to Disciples).

Foundational Identity: Kings and Priests

Exodus 19:5–6 (ESV)

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’

These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

The people of God are called to be kings and priests.

You and I are called to be kings and priests representing God to the world and interceding on their behalf.

This is no light and joyful task.

Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in London on June 2, 1953.

C. S. Lewis chose not to attend the festivities because the weather was poor, because he hated crowds, and because he was not in the mood to dress up.

Instead, he stayed at home.

Many watched the event on television (it was the first fully televised coronation, apparently at the behest of Philip).

About a month later Lewis reflected on the event in a letter to a friend (Letters, 3:343):

“You know, over here people did not get that fairy-tale feeling about the coronation.

What impressed most who saw it was the fact that the Queen herself appeared to be quite overwhelmed by the sacramental side of it.

Hence, in the spectators, a feeling of (one hardly knows how to describe it) — awe — pity — pathos — mystery.

The pressing of that huge, heavy crown on that small, young head becomes a sort of symbol of the situation of humanity itself: humanity called by God to be his vice-regent and high priest on earth, yet feeling so inadequate.

As if he said, “In my inexorable love I shall lay upon the dust that you are glories and dangers and responsibilities beyond your understanding.”

Do you see what I mean?

One has missed the whole point unless one feels that we have all been crowned and that coronation is somehow, if splendid, a tragic splendor.”

See also Deuteronomy 7:6-8; Isaiah 61:5-7; 1 Peter 2:9-10; Revelation 1:4-6; Revelation 5:9-10

Foundational Identity: Tabernacles/Temples of God (Presence)

The presence of God was located on top of Mount Sanai when the law was given (Exodus 19:16-20) in sound fire and smoke.

It was located in and over the Tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-38) in fire and smoke.

It was located in the Temple (1 Kings 8:10-11; Isaiah 6:1-5) in fire and smoke.

And on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) the presence of God, the Holy Spirit (like tongues of fire and a mighty wind), came to rest on the people of God in order to dwell IN the people of God.

Now we are the temple, the portable tabernacle, of God (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Ephesians 2:18-22).

So, we see that men and women are commissioned and designed – created to be God’s representatives, image-bearers of God, stewards of God, coregents with God, kings under the authority of God, priests representing God, and the portable location of the presence of God.

That is your foundational identity.

That is who you are as a disciple of Christ.

All that you do or say should flow through that identity.

And when we look at Spiritual Gifts, we need to view them through the lens of our foundational identity.

Spiritual Gifts: What are they?

Primary Texts

Romans 12:1-8 (key verses 6-8)

Romans 12:1–8 (ESV)

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

So, in Romans 12 we see that we are to present our bodies to God as living sacrifices (this is how Paul describes worship).

We are to be transformed by renewing our mind – in order that by testing and examination we may discern the will of God.

Why?

Because we have different gifts that need to be applied (through our bodies) to accomplish the will of God.

1 Corinthians 12:1–31 (Key verses 1-11, 27-31)

1 Corinthians 12:1–11 (ESV)

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.

You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.

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.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 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.

All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

In these first 11 verses we see that Paul’s desire (and I believe God’s desire) is that we should not be uninformed regarding Spiritual Gifts – This is NOT secret hidden information.