The Driving Force of the Church, Pt. 1

What is the Purpose of the Church?

Well good morning everyone and welcome to Burr Oak. If you are visiting for the first time or viewing this online I am Pastor Ben and it is a joy to be with you today. Well we are at about the half way point of our sermon series “What is the purpose of the church.” Which what are they? Say them with me. To exalt God, edify the saints, and evangelize the lost.

As a refresher we exalt God because he alone is the incomparable Yahweh. We are moved to exalting him or worshiping him, when we have seen his holiness, our filthiness in light of his holiness, and experienced his cleansing of that filthiness. Out of this we should be moved to worship Yahweh, which often takes form in offering ourselves to his service by serving those around us.

When it comes to both individual and corporate aspects of worship what we found is that in our personal worship we have lots of freedom in how to express that worship. But in corporate worship this individual aspect gets set off as the intended purpose of the corporate worship gathering is for us to grow in oneness.

That growing in oneness often comes in the form of edification. Which we defined as both the inspiration and equipping to continue in one’s walk with Christ. Edification we determined helps to grow us in this oneness, keeps us from becoming swayed by any wind of doctrine or teaching, and becomes a fuel tank of encouragement for us to go out these doors and faithfully serve God in our everyday lives Monday through Saturday.

This brings us to to the next aspect of edification which we are going to look at over the next five weeks. But before we get into let us now have our hearts and minds brought to attention with our focus verse.

Ephesians 4:15–16 ESV

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Please pray with me.

Father we come before you this morning praising your name. You alone are the Holy One. The one who deserves all the praise. Lord we thank you for bringing us together today and ask your blessing upon this message and our gathering. May you soften our hearts and open our minds to receive your word so that we may experience more of you.

In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

Well over the next 5 weeks we are going to look at a very specific aspect of edification. It is this aspect that causes the inspiration and equipping of the church to be different than that social clubs. This aspect is “The Driving Force of the Church.” Specifically we are going to be looking at how the Holy Spirit works within the corporate gathering of believers for the purpose of edification. This is going to sort of be a mini-series within our series as we are going to be working through 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14. Over the next five weeks we are going to look at the Spirit that Gives, the Spirit that Unites, the Spirit of Love, the Spirit Among Us, and the Spirit of Order.

The title of our message for today is The Driving Force of the Church, Pt 1: The Spirit that Gives and we will be look to 1 Cor 12:1-11. If you brought your Bible or want to follow along on your device please turn there now. If you are going to use the blue Pew Bible it is on page 1061. Or you can follow along on the screen.

Let us hear the word of the Lord.

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.

May the Lord bless the reading of his word.

Several weeks back I made the comment that if you want to read a book from the Bible that discusses how a church is to operate, 1 Corinthians is the one to read. Paul planted the church after he left Athens and spent a year and a half with them. Corinth was a heavily populated port city. It had many cultures dwelling within it’s limits as it was a bustling place for trade. Being a multicultural city, the level of morality was rather low. Sometime after Paul left, he recieved both oral and written reports regarding the condition of the church. This letter is his response to these reports and questions. The primary issue that we see Paul addressing in this letter is the divisions that have happened. We see this from a few passages in the first four chapters.

1 Corinthians 1:10–11 ESV

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. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.

And again in chapter 3.

1 Corinthians 3:1–3 ESV

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

As Paul is closing out his opening he informs them that the teaching he is about to give, which he left Timothy their to remind them of, is not a new teaching but what he instructs every church of.

1 Corinthians 4:16–17 ESV

I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.

And as he is getting ready to instruct them he asks them shall he come bearing harsh discipline or gentle discipline. This depends on whether or not the Corinthians heed the words of Paul. What is he to find when he comes? What we need to realize is that this question does not ultimately come from Paul, but from Christ. What will Jesus find of his church when he comes knocking? Will it be an inwardly dysfunctional mess that will most likely miss his knocking? Or will it be one that has sought to honor him with how they live by keeping his commands?

Where Paul turns to after chapter 4 is to discuss some specific sins that are taking place within the church. After addressing these sins, Paul begins to answer questions that the Corinthians had for him.

1 Corinthians 7:1 (ESV)

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote:

In Chapters 7-10 Paul address issues related to the individual Christian’s journey. In chapter 11 Paul transitions to issues within corporate worship. The last three chapters,chapters 15-17, deal with correcting doctrinal issues to guard the Corinthians from false beliefs.

Now that we have the background and a rough outline of what 1 Corinthians covers, lets come back to our passage for today to look at the driving force of the church. When it came to corporate worship the Corinthians were a mess. They were misusing the Lord’s supper, they were misusing the spiritual gifts, they were creating division amongst the believers. Service had grown chaotic and disorderly. They had shown themselves to be immature in their thinking and actions.

But what is the answer? That is what we want to seek to discover over the next several weeks. As we look to our passage for today there are three truths about the Spirit that we are going to discover. There is only one Spirit. The Spirit gives many Gifts at his discretion. And the purpose for these gifts.

There is Only One Spirit

As we open this section verses 2 and 3 seem to disrupt from the flow starting with verse 1 of the “now concerning spiritual gifts.”

1 Corinthians 12:1–3 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.

If this passage is simply about spiritual gifts how do verses 2 and 3 fit within the context. First, I would argue that while we do get significant teaching here about the spiritual gifts, they are the secondary issue of this passage. The main issue of this passage, and what we will see through chapter 14, is the presence of the Spirit in the life of the Christian.

When we read verse 3 we may take this as common sense, that no one being led by the Spirit is going to curse Jesus. Yet, that may not be the proper understanding of this phrase. As Bruce Winter points out, the phrase for “Jesus is accursed!” Can also be rendered as “Jesus grant a curse.” Understanding the Corinthian culture can help us to see this may be a more accurate rendering.

Winter comments,

“Pagans believed that the gods were capable of influencing their objectives against others in areas of life such as athletic competitions, matters of the heart, business and politics. This was done in pagan worship through the use of curses against their opponents. Sometimes they were written on lead, deposited in the temple and wells and sworn in the name of a god.”

Bruce Winter, “1 Corinthians,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al., 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 1180.

If we understand this rendering of that phrase, then we can easily understand why and how these verses fit at the beginning of this section. And what we would understand from this is that the Corinthians could have been using Jesus’ name to invoke curses on those that they are at odds with. Given the disarray that their church is in and the division that has taken place. It probably would not be too much to figure Paul is addressing these curses being made against other Christians. Instead of growing in to him who is the head, they are using Jesus as they would a pagan god to try and get what they want.

Now this sounds pretty harsh. When put in front of us plainly as this, we would wonder why another Christian would speak a curses onto another. But let us consider our prayers for a moment. In 2010 Jaron Lowenstein released a country song called “Pray for You.” The premise of the song is his girlfriend left him and in his sadness he finally went to church. The preacher’s message that day was to pray for those who hurt you. Out of this message came this prayer for his ex.

I pray your tire blows out at 110 I pray you pass out drunk with your best friend And wake up with his and her tattoos

I pray your brakes go out runnin' down a hill I pray a flower pot falls from a window sill And knocks you in the head like I'd like to

I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls I pray you're flyin' high when your engine stalls I pray all your dreams never come true

Now we may laugh at this, but how many of us have had prayers like these? How many of us have prayed for vengeance on those that have hurt us? How many of us have asked for the demise of someone else, whether it was in intentional prayer, or in your thoughts? How many of us have selfishly asked for those around us to be fixed rather than God helping us to grow closer to him and work on our own issues? How many of us have spoken curses onto others in the name of Jesus through the prayers we say? See far too often we give over to this way of thinking and it is not honoring to God. It is using his name in vain.

Winter follows his quote up by stating,

The New Bible Commentary (12:1–13 There Is Only One Holy Spirit)

“Only those led by the Spirit will affirm that Jesus is Lord. Christians were meant to be using their gifts for the blessing and the welfare of others (cf. v 7).”

This is what prefaces what is to come. There is only only Spirit that comes from God and that Spirit matches the character of God that was manifested through his Son Jesus. And what is that character.

Matthew 11:28–29 ESV

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

The character of the Spirit is that of gentle and lowly. One that is humble and concerned about the welfare of others. Not one who is puffed up. Or one that is in constant turmoil unable to find happiness, peace, and joy. And since the Christian is to be operating in step with the Spirit, these same characteristics are what are to be manifested from the Christian. Christians should not be divisive. They should not be gossips or quarrelsome. When they are it is an indicator that they are more controlled by the idols of their hearts and their fleshly desires, rather than the Spirit of God.

Now hear me, I am not saying this is a matter of salvation. When a Christian gives over to the idols of their heart, or their fleshly desires, I am not questioning their salvation. We know that in this life there are times we do what we do not want to do. We know that until we are free from this life, if we try to say we are free of sin, then we are a liar.

But when a brother or sister is constantly giving themselves over to these lifeless idols, when they keep running to the desires of their flesh, I question how in step with the Spirit they may really be. Gospel Treason was a tool for us to see where these desires and idols are at in our lives that cause to either use or discard others rather than love them. Because when we are instep with the Spirit the Spirit helps us to keep the commands of Christ. To love the lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. To love others as ourselves. And to love the body of believers because Jesus first love us, so that nothing is taken away from our witness.

And the blessed thing is, through the Spirit we are equipped to be able to love and serve each other. Let’s look to our second point.

The Spirit Gives Many Gifts at His Discretion

The Lord has equipped us in many different ways in order to love and serve each other and increase the kingdom work that can be done. As we begin to discuss the gifts first we need to understand that this is not an exhaustive list. Meaning that there are more gifts then what are listed here. Also as we move through these chapters and Paul begins to narrowly talk about two of the gifts we need to keep in mind that he is addressing a very specific issue, within a very specific people group.

1 Corinthians 12:8–11 ESV

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.

As we approach this topic, I think the biggest issue is not in understanding what these gifts are, but rather or not they still exist to this day. As we look at this the first thing we need to understand is that this is a secondary issue. It is okay for us to disagree on this topic. With that in mind this topic tends to break up into three camps. First is the camp that believes these gifts were only for a time at the start of the church and now no longer exists. The second camp is that which believes these gifts are still fully active today. The last is a combination. This third position will agree that from the text the gifts still exist, but they function as if they do not. This last position does not have it’s own biblical argument. The best way to describe this position is open but skeptical.

When we consider the argument over whether the gifts have ended or not, there are many men, much smarter than myself over the last two thousand years that have given much time and writing to this topic. You can find evidence for whatever position you want to take. To simply highlight to understand the difference, the conclusion that the gifts have ended is founded on a couple basis.

First, the ending of some of the gifts. Primarily the apostles and prophets, as they were the foundation on which the church was built as well as prophecy, tongues, and miracles.

Ephesians 2:20 ESV

built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,

1 Corinthians 13:8 ESV

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

Another point is an understanding from John 14:26 that could point to 1 Cor 13:10 meaning the complete canon of the Scriptures.

John 14:26 ESV

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

1 Corinthians 13:10 ESV

but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

Yet, for those who hold the position that these gifts have ended, by their own admission, the Scriptures do not definitively teach that they have ceased. Rather they take how they understand the Scriptures, apply the lack of experience of these gifts and conclude that they have ended.

As one who believes that these gifts still exists I will counter argue from my understanding, again as limited as it is. Firstly, as I mention a couple weeks ago, the giftings that go along with the terms apostle and prophet I believe still exists. I do not believe these gifts ended. As far as what we see in Eph 2:20 and 4:11 I would argue as I did a couple weeks ago that these are offices, that had the directive of being the human author of God’s inspired word.

I would argue that in a very basic sense the gift of prophecy is one who encourages or exhorts others to turn back to God’s word for guidance. As far as apostles they are very much still active today we just call them a different name. We call them missionaries. In fact the term mission is transliterated from that Latin word which was translated from the Greek word in which we get our term apostle.

As far as my understanding of 1 Cor 13:10, I do not believe this is a reference to the canon but rather to the second coming of Christ, the one who is perfect.

As far as the argument of experience or lack of experience I believe that there is a good way to counter this as well. In a article for The Gospel Coalition last fall Chuck Lawless presents why western believers may not see visible demonic possession as other cultures. His reasoning is that we are not an animistic culture at our core. Meaning we tend to deny that there is a supernatural power that organizes and animates the material world.

Lawless’ argument is that because of this reality Satan and his minions are able to do more damage spiritually without needing to visibly manifest themselves. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen, it just means as a whole we do not accept it. What Lawless points towards and is the similarity with the miraculous gifts, is that as Westerners we tend to live our lives in a steady state of blindness to the things of the spiritual realm. Whether they be holy or demonic.

But I believe this spiritual blindness has led to a bigger issue. It has led to the disintegration of the Western church. See the Scriptures do state that the gifts were given for a specific reason. Let’s look to our last point.

The Purpose of the Gifts

God, whether it be God the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit, does not do anything haphazardly or on accident. He has purpose in all that he does, and if we seek out his word usually we can come to understand why.

1 Corinthians 12:4–7 ESV

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.

There is but one Spirit that gives, there is but one Lord that we serve, there is but one God that empowers us in all that we do, and what does he empower us for? The common good. The common good, for that is the reason that the Spirit allows us to manifest any form of a gift.

Do you have the gift of hospitality? Good, God needs you to care for others. Do you have the gift of befriending people and starting conversations? Good, God needs you to evangelize. Do you have the gift of teaching God’s word? Good, God has saints that need to grow in maturity. Do you have the gift of administration? Good, God needs people to help organize and lead. Do you have the healing? Maybe it’s physical, maybe it’s emotional. Good because God cares about hurting people. Do you have the gift of earning money? Good because the efforts of the church need to be funded. Are you a jack of all trades? Good, because God’s people have needs. Do you have the gift of cooking? Good! Because God’s people get hungry!

See family, it takes all of us together, using the gifts that the Spirit has given us to care for the common good of others. And this is not just for those of us who are currently present. This is for the common good of those who are yet to come. See as God’s servants he has asked us to get his house ready for those that he wants to bring in. We have been working on that. Everything we have been working on since last June has been in the eager anticipation that God is going to pour his Spirit out and draw people near to him.

It appears that this is beginning in some areas of this nation. As we are closing I want to take a few moments and address this. There appears to be the starting of revival happening down in Wilmore Kentucky. I pray that it is. I pray that those who have been part of this or have traveled to experience it, are coming away transformed. Yet, as I see all the articles that have now come out from this event and those commenting on it from the outside, and those seeking for this to spread, instead of finding myself filled with a glorious anticipation, I find myself filled with a hesitant apprehension.

You might be asking yourself why? Why would I be hesitant or apprehensive about a moving of the Spirit? First that is not what I am apprehensive about. I pray that this is a true revival, the next great awakening. If it is, what a time to be alive. My hesitant apprehension comes in because I believe that most American Christians have no idea what they are asking for when they are asking for revival.

See for most conservative Christians, when we consider revival, what we really want is a return to the way things used to be. We have a vision in our mind in what revival should be. We expect families to be closer, we expect a return to common decency and respect, we expect a return of a higher morality level. We expect the culture around us to be impacted and fixed. Yet, this is not what revival does. At least not to start.

So I have a word of caution for you if you have been praying for revival. If you enjoy your weekly routines. If you enjoy the pleasures that this life has afforded you. If you enjoy your Saturday or Sunday nap time. If you enjoy your evenings free. If you enjoy Sunday evening with your family all gathered around the dinner table. If you enjoy your holiday traditions. If any of these things I just mentioned, being taken away from you would upset you. Stop praying for revival.

See when revival comes, it comes first for the one that is praying for it. And it begins as an inner turmoil. It begins with your insides in anguish as the Spirit of God convicts you of ever dirty secret you have. It begins with God showing you the one who has been praying for revival, how far from him you really are. It does not begin with coming for you husband or wife. It does not begin by coming for your son or daughter, or your sister or brother. It does not come first for your neighbor. It comes for you. It comes for you with the intent to upend your life. To turn it upside down. To set you free from your sin and set you on fire for God.

But the cost of this is great. You have to be willing to give up everything. When the Christian prays for revival they are putting themselves in the shoes of the rich young ruler. Pastor Dick just preached on that passage two weeks ago. When you pray for revival Jesus looks at you first and says this you still lack, do this and follow me. The question becomes are you going to go away sad because you weigh it as too much to give, or are you going to lay it all down to follow?

When it comes to revival this is the question you need to ask yourself. If you are not willing to lay down everything, stop praying for revival.

END IN PRAYER