Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?

Intro:

There is a foundational truth in many sports. You have to often go backward to move the ball forwards. In soccer, you will often see a team reverse field, which means the ball is played back from the midfield to the defense to even the goalie, only to have the goalie send the ball up the opposite side.

Today, we are entering the most difficult chapter of 1 Corinthians where Paul discusses spiritual gifts in the church and in order to understand all that is going on here, and to interpret it correctly, we have to go back before we go forward. When I say go back, I mean that we need to lay some groundwork by defining terms in order to come to an understanding of this passage.

Two Introductory statements about Spiritual Gifts!

1. NO ONE is denying that spiritual gifts are active in the church today. That will be a strawman argument that charismatics use against those who believe some gifts have ceased. NO ONE on either side is denying that the Holy Spirit gives gifts for the church today that are to be used for its edification.

Ephesians 4:11–13 NASB95

11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

2. Spiritual gifts is a secondary issue for the church. Some people will divide over this issue and find churches that hold similar views regarding the miraculous gifts. If they believe in tongue speaking, they want a tongue speaking church. I am ok with a gathering with like-minded believers because I do not want to pastor or attend a tongue-speaking or prophesying church.

What we cannot do is allow it to bring disunity to the body of Christ and shame his name. We have to learn to disagree and yet still show respect and kindness to those who disagree with us on these secondary issues. If we both hold to the true message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, then we can show respect and love to those who might disagree.

In that kindness, we need to respect those differences and not be cage-stage apologists about our cause and interpretations. Should we lay out our arguments to the opposing sides of the differing interpretations like spiritual gifts and show kindness even if we disagree? Yes.

I appreciate the stories brother Terry Brown tells me about my former seminary professors who do not hold to Reformed doctrines as he does and yet they still love each other and work well together. They show each other mutual respect and occasionally throw playful theological jabs to the gut of their opponents when they get a chance. Its all in familial fun!

To say all that, after our study is complete, if your views of spiritual gifts different than your pew neighbors, then that is acceptable. Buts its only acceptable as long as you still strive to show compassion, self-sacrifice and mercy to them as we all pursue brotherly love.

This sermon today is going to be an introductory sermon that strives to answer the question: Are miraculous gifts for today? This is the defining question that must be answered in regards to the differing views of gifts in the church.

I delineate miraculous gifts in my title with all spiritual gifts because as I said before, NO ONE is denying spiritual gifts are still being used today. The question for us in our study is are miraculous gifts still being used according to faithful interpretations of God’s word. Are they necessary for the church today?

Let’s define miraculous gifts as we begin. The reason I have waited to discuss this theological debate is because I knew chapter 14 was coming. I didn’t want to jump the shark in earlier chapters when I knew that Paul would dive deep in this chapter into these miraculous gifts. Miracle gifts are typically thought of as prophecy, tongues, healing and miracles.

Two terms that are important for our discussion:

Cessationism: Those who believe in the continual use of spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit for the church but who believe that certain miraculous gifts have ceased their function in the church with the end of the apostolic age.

Continuationism: Those who believe in the continual use of spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit for the church and who believe that certain miraculous gifts continue their function in the church today.

Now at the onset, let me say that those in my side of the camp that believe that miraculous gifts have ceased, we do not believe that God has ceased from doing miracles. We serve a miraculous, all-powerful God who chooses in every way to do the impossible. Children and adults are healed from disease. Marriages are resurrected. Souls are brought from death to life. We would denying the vivid attribute of God’s power if we denied God’s miraculous work today.

While Cessationists believe that God can and does do miracles in this world today, we deny that he normally assigns that power to human beings in the church as a vessel to carry out that miracle, as He once did in biblical history. Cessationists believe that no longer will an apostles shadow nor their handkerchief touch a ailing person and they will be healed. Miraculous gifts are history and not the normative practice of the church today as I will attempt to argue from Scripture.

1. The Foundation

Turn with me to Eph 2:20-21

Ephesians 2:19–22 NASB95

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

Now Paul is talking about the way that the Sovereign plan of God orchestrated the salvation of both Jews and Gentiles. Paul makes the case that the gospel has saved Gentiles as well, “tearing down the wall of hostility” and grafting both Jew and Gentile together into one building -the living church.

Paul states in verse 20 that the church as a body is like a building and that building has a foundation.

As a construction guy, I know first hand the importance of the foundation being correct before a structure can be built on top. At C and O we often remodel Mid-town homes built in the early 1900’s and we have to focus first on get the floor level before we start removing and adding walls. Through the years, those old homes have shifted and nothing seems to be plumb or level. If the floor isn't level, the walls will not be plumb. If the wall isn't plumb, your cabinets and door will be crooked. Even your appliances will not function the way they need to.

Paul states that in the history of the church’s beginning, a part of that history was its beginning. Its beginning came officially on the day of pentecost in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit came down upon the apostles, empowering them to start the church. Notice that in Eph 2:20, this is what Paul is referring to in regards to the church having a foundation. That foundation is the work of gospel ministry with the apostles and prophets. The role of the apostles was to go out and bear witness of the risen Christ for all who would hear and believe. Those who believed would be transformed by regeneration and they would be added to the church. This work of the apostles is called the foundation of the church.

He highlights that Christ is the corner stone and that means that He is the starting point and apex of the foundation. To built an appropriate foundation that lasts, the corner stone is the first stone laid that sets the progress for a good square foundation or poor foundation and a disaster of a building. Christ is our cornerstone of the Christian church and the rest of the foundation of doctrine and practice rests on the apostles and prophets. Paul is solidifying for us that while the apostles and prophets fulfilled their ministry, their work and witness about themselves. It was not a self-promoting work for their own glory. They were not grandstanding for attention. The cornerstone was Christ and therefore their witness was focused on Christ and his redemption offered in the cross and the empty tomb.

2. The Completed Foundation

The thing about a foundation that is clear from this verse is the completion of it. Foundations are not laid throughout the project. They are built and then the walls and roof go up. The building is not a building with just a foundation. Paul states that the NT church that followed the apostles and prophets are the building. This implies that the end and completion of the foundation was the work of the apostles and prophets before the building (the church) was erected. That foundation of the apostles and prophets is our concern today as we think about spiritual gifts.

The Apostolic Age

Since Paul is saying the work of the apostles and prophets were the foundation of the church and that foundation have a completion, then scholars have termed this time period the apostolic age. This time of the church began with Jesus coming into world as the first apostle or SENT ONE and those apostles who followed after the resurrection and into the time of the early church. This time was marked with a great emphasis of miraculous works in order to be a sign for the message that was being communicated. Those apostles followed Jesus himself as delivering the revelation from God to the people. Their message was authenticated by the miracles they performed.

The time of Jesus and the apostles included healings, people being raised from the dead, supernatural phenomenon that all centered around the man of God who had to deliver a message from God. This is why many call the miraculous spiritual gifts, sign gifts. They were signs to point people to the words of the prophets.

Can you think of any other time in Biblical history where intense times of signs and wonders occured that accompanied the messages of the prophets? There are actually two others times in all of the Bible with such intense sign gifts that pointed to the message and messenger from the Lord.

Moses and Joshua

Throughout biblical history , there have prophets who were the mouthpiece of God to the people and with those prophets there have been different periods of intense miraculous works of God that accompany them so that the message from the Lord could be authenticated.

It is an undeniable truth that the Lord did mighty works by the hands of Moses and Joshua. The ten plagues upon Egpyt, the staff that turned to a snake, the staff that parted the Red Sea, the bronze serpent that healed the sick, brought water from a rock, and more. All of Moses’ miracles were a sign of his message to Israel. Joshua, likewise, who followed Moses also was given God’s word to communicate to the people and miracles would follow him as well.

Elijah and Elisha

The second era we can see in biblical history is the time of Elijah and Elisha. Again, these two men had incredibly challenging ministries of delivering the message of the Lord to the people and their ministries also were followed with fantastic supernatural miracles.

John Walvoord states,

A period of miracles is always a time when special testimony is needed to confirm the authenticity of God’s prophets…. An unusual display of miracles is, therefore, not an ordinary feature of each generation, to be called down at will even by the godly, but is rather articulated in the purpose of God for its value in promotion of His truth.- John Walvoord

Moses and Joshua were the first era of miraculous gifts that accompanied revelation from God through his prophets. The second era was with Elijah and Elisa. The final stage was the time of Jesus and the apostles as Ephesians 2:20 affirms for us.

This historical reflection has great implications to our study of spiritual gifts because Paul here and in 2 other verses mentions apostles and prophets together in a NT context. With the foundation of the apostles and prophets laid, there becomes no need for any more miraculous sign gifts because following the era of Jesus and the apostles, the time of revelation from God was completed where God was no longer speaking through the prophets to the people.

3. The Apostles and Prophets

Apostles

We know that the apostles were those who were sent to testify of the risen Christ. These were qualified to be apostles because they witnessed Jesus in his resurrected form but their work as apostles was to bear witness to all that Jesus taught them. This included the apostle Paul as he was visited by the Lord and instructed in a way that He was called to be an apostle to testify of Christ and his redemptive work.

This means that apostles cannot exist today since no one is being visited by the resurrected Lord Jesus and sent out as his emissaries to establish the church. The 12 apostles, Paul and James are directly referred to in the Scriptures as apostles and the church witnesses their authority and the infallibility of their message as they carry out miracles that affirm their message.

But Apostles as an office of the church has ceased. This statement differs from the Roman Catholic church who holds to Apostolic succession. They believe that after the apostle Peter was given the keys to the kingdom, each Pope that followed him brought an apostolic succession that gave authority just as the apostles had.

But this is incorrect as Paul states in Eph 2:20. The apostles belonged to the foundation of the church, not the continuing lumber and bricks that add to its structure.

Robert Godfrey from Ligionier Ministries writes,

The Apostles never taught the Apostolic succession of offices. They did, however, teach the Apostolic succession of truth, which was to be preserved in the Scriptures for us always. So, we believe in the Apostolic succession, not of office but of truth

Therefore, we must believe then that apostles had a purpose in history of the initial creation of the church through the work of proclaiming teh revealed word of God but their time was limited and their function has ceased. Although the office has ended, the reverberating effects of their ministry of Christ and the gospel echos throughout the ages into our hearts today.

Prophets

Tom Schreiner defines prophecy as

the reception of spontaneous revelations from God…(that )instruct, encourage, and warn the people of God.

Now we know and have seen how the OT prophets received revelation from the Lord and declared that authoritative word with the disclaimer “Thus saith the Lord.” This phrase let the people know that these words were revealed from God alone, by His Spirit. We will dive more deeply in prophecy in relation to Corinth next week as we look at chapter 14. But we must understand that just as Eph 2:20 identifies a completed era of apostles, so it identifies that the prophetic office was completed as part of the foundation as well.

Therefore, what Paul is telling these Ephesians is that NT prophets existed alongside the apostles during the apostolic age that received revelation from the Lord. Paul’s use of “prophets” in Eph 2 cannot mean OT prophets for a number of reasons.

Paul would never have placed OT prophets behind apostles in this phrase. If he intended OT prophets, they logically would have been listed first because they preceded the apostolic work.

Paul uses the same grouping in two other passages in Eph with the intention of describing gospel ministry after Christ ascended into heaven.

Ephesians 3:4–5 NASB95

4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;

Ephesians 4:11 NASB95

11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,

3. Third, from a grammatical perspective, the conjunction and provides a clue that these functions of the church are referring to similar but not the same group of people. In other words, we can conclude from Scripture that some of the apostles also possessed the gift of prophecy because they delivered for us revelation from God. But what Paul is NOT saying here is that apostles and prophets are the same people. Not all prophets were apostles of the Lord Jesus, for example Agabus in Acts 21.

In conclusion, then apostles and NT prophets had a purpose and function as the church was being established and as their offices ceased so did the use of those gifts for the church.

Why can’t prophecy and miracles still operate in the church today?

This is actually a view that continuationists hold to, sort of. One of the most notable continuationists of the last 40 years in reformed circles is Wayne Grudem. He makes his arguments in his Systematic theology book for the continual use of the sign gifts like miracles, prophecy and tongues in the church today. But like Grudem, continuationists REDEFINE the nature of prophecy.

In order for their view to sync with the inerrant and completed canon of Scripture, they redefine prophecy to mean something different than its use in the rest of history. Wayne Grudem states in his book Prophecy in the NT,

“In ordinary New Testament churches, (prophecy) was not equal to scripture in authority, but was simply a very human, and sometimes partially mistaken report of some thing the Holy Spirit brought to one's mind.”

Those who agree with Grudem continue with such a thought to say that prophecy in Paul’s use in 1 Corinthians 12-14 was a prophecy that was fallible. He would say the message was not fallible but the messenger would misinterpret or get it wrong.

Do not miss this profound divergence from the biblical record regarding prophecy. Grudem believes that while OT prophets delivered an infallible revelation from the Lord, now in the NT church, that message can be misinterpreted and the prophet be wrong. So I ask you? What happened in the OT when a prophet was wrong?

Deuteronomy 18:18–20 NASB95

18 ‘I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 ‘It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. 20 ‘But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’

Why the change in accountability for prophets from the Lord? Why at one point in history, if they get it wrong, they are killed but in the NT, they get it wrong, and its just a free pass. That is not communicating a unified practice of the gifts of prophecy.

Therefore I believe we must hold to the truth that all prophecy is revelation from God, that it is infallible by inspiration of the Holy Spirit and safeguarded by God as it is delivered to man. This prophecy was delivered at a certain time in history by God’s chosen servants and compiled and completed for us in the finalized canon of Scripture. Whatever revelation that was spoken by prophets that was not recorded in the canon was sovereignly decided by our King and we must rest in what has been revealed to us is sufficient and authoritative and completed.

To say prophecy still continues today but in a different form is simply saying that God has allowed a redefining of this mode of communication to mankind. This brings confusion to the system of revelation already established by the apostles and prophets and it threatens the Word of God delivered once and for all delivered to the saints.

4. The Building

Ephesians 2:20–22 NASB95

20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

To conclude, let me just say that the Holy Spirit is constantly at work building up the body of Christ day by day until Christ comes again. While the miraculous gifts like prophecy tongues and miracles had a place in the churches history, they are not necessary today. We have the finished revelation of God in the Holy Scriptures. We have the active gifts of the Spirit to continue the building process.

Ephesians 4:11–13 NASB95

11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

We are all on individual and a corporate journey of faith where gifts given by the Spirit aid the church in healthy growth to maturity. These are tools in our toolbox to build healthy churches that honor and worship Christ as he was meant to be worshipped.