Sermon Tone Analysis

There are many Spiritual gifts.

Nine are listed in tonight’s portion.

But three more are mentioned in 1 Cor.

12:28-30 more still in passages located in Romans 12:2-8 and Ephesians 4:7-11

The gifts listed in verses 7-11 are “interim” gifts, they are temporary.

In verses 28-30, the gifts of apostles and miracles are also “interim gifts”, but the rest of the gifts are permanent, still in effect today, with the exception of tongues.

For further discussion look at...

Seven gifts are mentioned again in Romans, rather the duty that coincides with the gift is described in Romans.

Next we see the gifts mentioned in ...

This passage concludes with an expounding of four offices, five if we separate pastor and teacher.

Tonight’s study is not in dealing with every single gift of the Spirit.

Rather our focus is on the list in 1 Corinthians that Paul mentions in verses 7-11, these “interim gifts”.

What are they, what purpose did they serve, and why or how we know they are not in effect today.

First

Apostles

While it is not mentioned in our first list, it is mentioned first in 1 Cor.

12:28

1 Corinthians 12:28 (KJV 1900)

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.

What: Apostle = one sent with a message from Jesus Christ.

The Bible only lists a total of 15 men who held this title, the original 12, Paul, Barnabas, and James.

Purpose: They were to be the overseers of the new church.

They had the responsibility of leading this new group of believers and keeping them from falling into false doctrine.

Reason: There are no apostles today.

There are some who have taken this title for themselves, but they were not given it by God.

In order to be an apostle, one had to have see the resurrected Christ and been commissioned by Him directly.

Therefore this particular gift falls under the category of “interim gift”.

Wisdom

What: the word of wisdom refers to the revelation of the mind of God in doctrinal and redemptive areas.

Purpose: This gift was necessary because the NT was not yet completed.

There was no collected letters of Paul, in fact they were still being written.

The church didn’t have the gospels yet which would spell out a universal offer of salvation.

God had to step in and in certain remote areas reveal this to churches through a divine act which is no longer necessary.

Reason: This gift is no longer necessary today because we have the completed Word of God.

While God still gives wisdom where we need it James 1:5 “5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”

, the gift of wisdom is not needed because we have a completed Bible that has all the answers to any questions we ask.

Knowledge

What: Most likely this was a “sister-gift” to the word of wisdom.

Whereas wisdom would shed light on something previously unknown, the word of knowledge would give practical instruction on how to carry it out.

Purpose: This gift was necessary again in absence of the completed NT.

Reason: Now that they NT is completed, we no longer need this special gift of knowledge.

Again, every question we have need to be answered is in deed answered in the Word of God.

Faith

What: Someone has said the faith is predicated on the promises of God.

Let it be understood that this is not speaking of saving faith, nor of living by faith.

This gift of faith was supernaturally given so that the church would attempt great things for God, and seems to be connected with outward signs.

See 1 Cor.

13:2.

Purpose: Jesus spoke of having faith as a mustard seed.

While we all believe what He said to be true, there are very few of us that when faced with and immovable mountain are willing to look at it and say, “Be thou removed and cast into the sea.”

This gift of faith was necessary at a time before the completed Word of God to authenticate or prove God’s promises to be true.

Reason: Once again we see there reason this gift is no longer in operation today, at least on the same scale, is because we have the completed Bible.

**Let me say, there are some Christians that have a tremendous amount of faith.

However, this is not the same as having the gift of faith as mentioned in 1 Corinthians.

Gifts of Healing

What: Notice the plural “gifts”.

This gift was used for the purpose of healing many who were sick.

The emphasis being on the results, not the process.

No record of healing ministries, no record of crowds of people lining up to have hands laid on them.

No record that anyone with the gift ever got rich from it.

Also, the times these gifts were exercised those who were healed were healed instantly and permanently.

There was no half way healing.

Purpose: Like all of these interim, sign gifts, the purpose was not be used by itself alone, but confirm the truth of what the messenger proclaimed.

The sign gifts were to authenticate the one exercising them was truly sent from God.

Reason: With the completed NT there is no need to authenticate the message.

While I believe today that God still heals, those times of healing are solely predicated on His will, not the medium of a man.

Miracles

What: the word literally means “Powers”.

In most cases the excercise of the gift involved power over nature.

Acts 5:1-10

Purpose: As with the gifts mentioned above, the gift of miracles dealt with the authentication of the messenger that he was indeed sent by God.

Reason: The message today is one of faith, not sight.

You will either believe what the Word of God says or not.

Again, this gift is no longer necessary because of the completed Word of God.

Prophecy

What: This gift involves both “foretelling” (future, end times revelation) and “forthtelling” (preaching/proclaiming/expounding the Word of God).

Often the message was given by direct revelation from God.

Purpose: This was needed because the Bible was being written.

Without the completed Bible how else were the new Christians to learn God’s Word?

It is possible that God revealed to the new believers what He later had written down for us in the Bible.

Reason: Today there is no need for the gift of foretelling because, you guessed, we have a completed Bible! **There is one aspect of the gift of prophecy that is still used today, that is the gift of preaching (forthtelling - explaining the Word of God).

That being said, a preacher is in one limited sense a prophet.

Tongues

What: A supernatural gift in which one could communicate in a language they had not had any formal learning in.

Acts 2, is a prime example of the exercise of this gift.

The men had never taken lessons in the 17 languages they presented the gospel in.

The Holy Spirit equipped them with this ability.

Purpose: The purpose of this gift was to expedite the spread of the gospel.

It would be years before the completed NT, and centuries before the ministry of translators would come along.

How many would have died and gone to hell while they waited to hear someone share the gospel in their language?

**Please note the gift of tongues was given specifically as a sign to unbelieving Jews.

Any time the gift of tongues was used, Jews were present.

Reason: Again....WE HAVE A COMPLETED NT!

There is almost no language in which the Bible has not been translated.

There are only a handful of countries in which there is no gospel witness.

There is no need to speak in tongues in an English speaking church if everyone understands English!

To say that this is “proof” of God’s power is foolishness.

Interpretation of tongues

What: This would be the “sister gift” to tongues.

It was given so that everyone could understand the message being spoken.

(NOTE: There is no record of this gift being used in Acts 2).

Purpose: The message spoken in tongues would have been for zero benefit to those who did not understand the language.