The Gifts of the Spirit (1)

The Gifts of the Spirit—Romans 12:6–8

Romans 12:6–8 NLT

6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

Romans 12:6-8 “6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.”

Paul lists seven of the gifts in this passage.

In verse 6, he begins by stating the principle that believers have different gifts according to the grace that was given [to the believer]. One believer will never have all the gifts. On the other hand, no one gift will be given to every believer. Rather, God has ordained that believers have different gifts. Believers differ in the number and kinds of gifts they have, but no one believer will ever have all the gifts, and no one specific gift is available to every believer.

1. Gift Number One: The Gift of Prophecy

First is the gift of prophecy. The gift of prophecy was the ability to receive direct revelation. A prophet was one who received direct revelation from God. There are several examples of this in the New Testament: prophets in the church of Antioch (Acts 13:1); Agabus (Acts 11:27–28; 21:10–11); and the daughters of Philip (Acts 21:8–9). As in the Old Testament, a prophet needed to be tested by giving some near prophecies, which came to pass. The prophecies of Agabus and Philip’s daughters did come to pass, so they were proven to have the gift of prophecy.

2. Gift Number Two: The Gift of Service

Second is the gift of ministry or service. Serving is a specific spiritual gift. Since the office of a deacon is an office of serving, one who holds the office of a deacon should have the gift of serving. The Gift if Service is not the same as the Helps, which is listed in 1 Corinthians 12:28. We will touch briefly on Helps at the end of the study of the Gifts of the Spirit.

3. Gift Number Three: The Gift of Teaching

Third is the gift of teaching, which is the ability to organize the truth and present it in a clear manner so the audience understands. It is the ability to communicate spiritual truth.

4. Gift Number Four: The Gift of Exhortation

The fourth gift is the gift of exhortation, which is the divine ability to get people to apply the truth. Prophecy is receiving truth by direct revelation; teaching is the ability to organize the truth received and to present it in a clear manner; exhorting is the ability to move people to apply the truth so that they act on it.

5. Gift Number Five: The Gift of Giving

Fifth is the gift of giving. Those who have this gift should do it with liberality. While everyone is responsible to give, those with this gift will be able to give to a far greater degree. Some people who have this gift have given away as much as 90 percent of their income to the work of the ministry.

6. Gift Number Six: The Gift of Administration

Sixth is the gift of ruling or administration. Those who have this gift are to exercise it with diligence. Since the position of elder requires ruling and administering, a person who wishes to have the office of an elder should have the gift of ruling or administration.

7. Gift Number Seven: The Gift of Mercy

Seventh is the gift of showing mercy, a special gift of reaching out and comforting the sick and needy. Those who have this gift are to do it with cheerfulness.

The Gifts of the Spirit—Ephesians 4:11–16

The next passage emphasizes the gifts of the Holy Spirit as possessed by individuals, that is, gifted men. It also emphasizes the purpose of the gifts.

Ephesians 4:11–16 NLT

11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

Ephesians 4:11-16 “11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”

Ephesians 4:11 NLT

11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.

In verse 11, Paul begins with the enumeration of the gifts, some of which are the same as those in Romans 12:4–8. The Book of Romans lists a total of seven spiritual gifts. This Ephesians passage adds additional gifts to the list: And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.

8. Gift Number Eight: The Gift of Apostleship

The first gift mentioned is the gift of apostleship. This was a unique gift, because, in order to receive this gift, one had to meet certain qualifications beyond that of being a believer.

(1) The Qualifications for Apostleship

While all believers were eligible for any other gift, though God alone determined the distribution of the gifts, only certain believers were eligible for the gift of apostleship. There were two groups of apostles.

(a) The First Circle

First was the group of the Twelve Apostles. To qualify for this group, one had to have been a follower of Yeshua (Jesus) from the baptism of John. He was first to have been a disciple of John the Baptist, then to have followed Yeshua, and to have seen the resurrected Messiah and His Ascension. This is seen in the selection of Matthias to replace Judas in Acts 1:22 “22 from the time he was baptized by John until the day he was taken from us. Whoever is chosen will join us as a witness of Jesus’ resurrection.””

To be an apostle within the circle of the Twelve, one had to have been a follower of Yeshua from the time of John’s baptism. Paul was not an apostle of the inner Twelve, because he had never undergone John’s baptism.

(b) The Second Circle

But there was a second group of apostles, and the requirement for this group was to have seen the resurrected Messiah. Paul fulfilled this requirement, for he saw the resurrected Messiah on the Damascus Road. On this basis, he defends his apostleship in 1 Corinthians 9:1 “1 Am I not as free as anyone else? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus our Lord with my own eyes? Isn’t it because of my work that you belong to the Lord?”

Paul proved his apostolic calling by claiming that he had seen the resurrected Messiah. Paul calls himself an apostle in the first verse of his letters, including Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus.

Barnabas was also an apostle of the second circle according to Acts 14:14 “14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard what was happening, they tore their clothing in dismay and ran out among the people, shouting,”

James, the half-brother of Yeshua, was an apostle of the second circle. According to 1 Corinthians 15:7 “7 Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles.” , James had seen the resurrected Messiah, and Galatians 1:19 “19 The only other apostle I met at that time was James, the Lord’s brother.” puts him in the category of an apostle. So only those who saw the resurrected Messiah ever qualified for receiving this particular gift. Therefore, this gift was only available to the 500–600 people who saw the resurrected Messiah, and not every one of those received the gift of apostleship.

(2) The Evidence of Apostleship

A second unique aspect of the gift of apostleship was the fact that the gift of apostleship always included the power of miracles. One was qualified to be an apostle only if he had seen the resurrected Messiah, and then the power of his miracles was the evidence of his apostleship. This is the Paul of 2 Corinthians 12:12 “12 When I was with you, I certainly gave you proof that I am an apostle. For I patiently did many signs and wonders and miracles among you.”

Paul proved himself to be an apostle in both ways. First, he had seen the resurrected Messiah on the Damascus Road. Secondly, he had the power of an apostle as proven by his many miracles, signs, and wonders.

The same point is made in Hebrews 2:3–4 “3 So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? 4 And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever he chose.”

In verse 3, the writer points out that salvation was proclaimed by those who were eyewitnesses of the ministry of Yeshua. These eyewitnesses were the apostles who witnessed His Resurrection and Ascension. They proved their apostolic office by their power of miracles, signs, and wonders (v. 4). Apostles are seen using these powers of miracles in Acts 5:12–16; 16:16–18; and 28:8–9.

b. The Gift of Prophecy

The next gift Paul mentions in this passage is the gift of prophecy. This was discussed earlier as gift number one.

9. Gift Number Nine: The Gift of Evangelism

The third gift listed here is the gift of evangelism. The gift of evangelism is a unique, God-given ability to win people to the Messiah. Some people use the existence of the gift of evangelism as an excuse not to witness, claiming that they do not have the gift of evangelism, so they do not need to witness.

But Paul teaches otherwise in 2 Timothy 4:5 “5 But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you.”

Timothy did not have the gift of evangelism but he had the gift of teaching, so he became a teaching-elder in the church of Ephesus. When Paul wrote, he told Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. Although Timothy could not be an evangelist because he did not have the gift of evangelism, he could at least do the work of one, and that was to witness.

Every believer has the responsibility of doing the work of an evangelist; every believer is responsible to witness concerning the truth of the gospel. Those who have the gift of evangelism will be able to enter into this kind of ministry full-time and will have a much higher number of people coming to the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. Every believer can and should be leading people to the Lord, though those who do not have the gift will not have the same rate of success as those who do.

10. Gift Number Ten: The Gift of Pastor-Teacher

The fourth gift in this list is the gift of pastor-teacher. Some translations read pastor and teacher, but the word and is not in the Greek text. A proper translation of this should be “pastor-teacher”; it is the gift of pastor-teacher. The gift of teaching was discussed earlier: it is the ability to organize the truth and present it. Not everyone who has the gift of teaching will necessarily have the gift of pastoring. But everyone who has the gift of pastoring will automatically have the gift of teaching, because the two go together.

Pastoring involves shepherding. Shepherding involves guiding the flock, leading the flock, and feeding the flock. The means of feeding the flock is by the Word of God. If someone is guiding, leading, and feeding the flock, he is doing the work of pastoring. But he will only be able to do so by being able to teach the Word of God to the flock.

While not everyone who has the gift of teaching will automatically have the gift of pastoring, everyone who has the gift of pastoring will automatically have the gift of teaching. Therefore, the spiritual gift mentioned here is the gift of pastor-teacher. This is a gift, not an office, though all who hold the office should also have the gift.

FRUCHTENBAUM, ARNOLD G.: The Messianic Bible Study Collection. vol. 71. Tustin, CA : Ariel Ministries, 1983