Sermon Tone Analysis
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We are just finishing up our birthday season.
We have Christmas, then Nancy and Grace’s birthdays are in January, and David’s and mine are in February.
That makes for a lot of gifts being given in two months.
The kids have been thrilled.
I am looking at the house, wondering what we are going to do with all the stuff.
One of these days, we are going to have a Boxing Day, where we box up all the stuff that we don’t use and bring it to the Bargain Box.
But, that will be when my life slows down, as in Not during Birthday Season.
Why do we give gifts to each other?
There are many different reasons why.
But, I love the look in the eyes of my kids when they open up a present and are so thrilled about it.
Then, for the next few weeks, my heart is warmed when they use those gifts.
Sometimes, the gift is something fun.
Sometimes it is something useful, or character building.
Sometimes, it is both.
But, I always enjoy seeing that look and seeing them use it.
The Bible says that God gives us gifts, through his spirit.
Sometimes, we talk about them.
Sometimes, we don’t.
When we do talk about them, fewer times do we actually discuss the “why”.
Well, today, we are going to talk about them.
Let’s read the passage:
Today, we are going to see that the Holy Spirit produces gifts in all believers to glorify our God.
Will you pray with me?
1.
The Holy Spirit
Let’s first talk about the Holy Spirit.
Paul writes:
Paul cares about this congregation, and he does not want points of doctrine to fall through the cracks.
Literally, the text says: about the things of the Spirit, brothers I do not want you to be uninformed.
We are a non-denominational church, focused on studying the Word of God.
Unfortunately, like so many churches similar to us, we neglect the things of the Spirit, so often.
We don’t teach them.
We don’t pursue them.
Many times, because spiritual things worry us.
We have a hard time with something we don’t see.
But, let’s not be uninformed.
A. Who Is the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity.
This passage is used a lot in talking about the Trinity.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit.
All equally and completely God, but distinct from each other, having different functions.
When we pray, we pray to the Father, through Jesus by the Spirit.
This passage talks about gifts that God works in each believer through Jesus by the Spirit.
The Trinity at work.
Well, who is the Holy Spirit.
It is the third person of the Trinity.
Gifted to each believer on the moment of faith.
Jesus promised this Spirit, before he died.
This Holy Spirit equips us to live the life of a follower of Jesus.
Put simply, the Holy Spirit empowers the believer, by giving life and by giving the ability for service.
It purifies, by convicting the world of sin, by bringing salvation, and by sanctifying the believer.
It reveals truth to prophets and apostles, it reveals evidence of God’s presence.
It guides and directs God’s people.
It gives assurance.
It teaches and illuminates.
It unifies.
It gives stronger or weaker evidence of the presence and blessing of God.
And it gives specific gifts for the purpose of all of the above.
I would give scriptural evidence of all of that, but I don’t have the time.
Ask me if you want it.
The Holy Spirit is the first fruits and the guarantor of the full manifestation of God’s presence that we will know in the new heavens and the new earth.
The Holy Spirit is given to everyone who believes at the moment of faith.
Jesus promised that in the verses in John.
We see the fulfillment of this throughout the book of Acts, in addition to our own lives.
The Holy Spirit is someone we can rely on to do all that he was promised to do.
2. Produces Gifts
We are going to narrow in one of all the many things the Holy Spirit does to help us.
The Holy Spirit produces Gifts.
In this passage, Paul lists 9 gifts of the Spirit.
We could read 1 Peter 4 and see another list.
We could read Romans 12 and read another list.
We could read 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 and see another list.
None of these lists are all inclusive, and when you compile the lists, they do not contain individual things that are gifted by the Spirit, like celibacy, because no one wants to talk about that.
Paul, Peter, and the author human authors of the Bible never focused on giving a comprehensive list of Gifts of the Spirit, because there is no comprehensive list.
I appreciate how the NIV translated this passage:
Each gift is a manifestation, a showing of the presence of the Spirit, a result that he is working in us at a specific period of time.
Now, as I said, the list of gifts or manifestations here in 1 Corinthians 12 are not comprehensive.
But, I would not be a good pastor if I just glossed over them, because there is a lot of misconceptions and false teaching about them.
I am going briefly discuss them, and then in May, we will dive into three of the most controversial.
Of this list, most of the giftings are in pairs, because the Body of Christ never worked separately.
The message of wisdom, in the terminology of Paul, is the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Throughout 1 Corinthians, Paul uses wisdom as the way of the Gospel.
The message of knowledge is how to live according to the Gospel.
That’s the focus of the book.
For Paul, everything goes back to the Gospel and how to reflect Jesus with our lives.
Anything that detracts from that should be thrown out.
The gift of faith is the ability of those in the community to believe God in how he is working, specifically in how he is working to heal someone.
Which is the next gift.
Sometimes, God works through the prayer of his people and the faith of others, to heal another who is sick.
The gift of miraculous powers could be considered healing, but there is more.
God works through the prayers of his people to send rain and to hold it back, to produce water in wells, etc.
The gift of prophecy is more controversial.
Scripturally, prophecy is speaking the message of God.
The prophet confronted the people of this world, whether followers of God or not, about their lives.
Telling them what it means to live godly and the consequences for not living godly.
Sometimes, the prophet used future predictions to give support to his message, but the focus of the prophet was never the future, but the present, calling people to follow God.
The gift of distinguishing spirits is parallel with prophesy.
This is for those who are listening to a proclaimed prophet, to know whether the prophesy is inspired by the Holy Spirt or by another spirit.
Finally, speaking in different tongues.
Ha!
As I said, prophesy and tongues, with their corresponding gifting will be explored more in depth in May, as we study 1 Corinthians 14, which is all about prophesy and tongues.
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