The Supernatural Church - The Gifts of the Holy Spirit - Part 1 - Why gifts?
Notes
Transcript
GREET EVERYONE-
If I have not had a chance to meet you; My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship.
Our Vision:
We Desire see every follower of Jesus well equipped and fully deployed on the mission of Jesus.
What mission? - This questions leads us to articulate His mission for His church in a simple way.
Our Mission:
Is to engage people into a multiplying relationship with Jesus!
WELCOME-
1- Welcome home lunch - Next Sunday - There is an app
2 - New Members Classes Begin Aug 11th. App for That
3 - Small Groups Leader Training Begins Thursday Augst 8th - App for that
4 - When Gods people pray - Comments on the last two weeks events and invitation to pray with readiness for persecution.
LETS GRAB OUR BIBLES IF YOU HAVE ONE AND
Open it to Acts Chapter 2 verse 41 today as we begin our new series “The Super Natural Church” as we take the next few weeks to understand the Supernatural gifts.
PRAYER OVER SERIES
In this series we are going to be Exposing What God says about 7 of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. There are 22 in all and we will be navigating all of them here pretty soon, but in this series I want us to walk through the 7 that seemingly have the biggest and in some cases the most negative effect on unity in the church.
and my prayer over this series is and has been that all of us would come to the scripture and stand on it alone at face value and fins one of two effects on our intimate life and walk with Jesus.
1- Some of us find our selves boundaries by the scripture -
in not only what we believe but also what we do when it comes to these supernatural gifts.
That our understanding and use of the gifts of Boldness, Prophecy, Tongues the interpretation of Tongues, Healing Gifts and Miraculous gifts as well as the distinguishing gift would be changed in what we believe and limited to what what we do to what the bible says on its face value as written in english for us to understand.
2 - Some of us need to be set free from teaching that is in error and not based on what the bible says at face value.
That we too would be set free from any presuppositions that limit your serving Jesus to advance His kingdom or our experiencing the power of god in any way as described in this in the scriptures.
Most of us usually - come to the strange and supernatural parts of the scripture and usually one of two things happen -
We step away or we dive way in.
and usually when we step away we are in error and when we dive way in we too are in error becasue we take things too far.
The great thing about Stonewater Fellowship is that we all come from diverse backgrounds.
and no matter what we are willing to lock arms and advance the kingdom, sharing the gospel and making disciples as we go.
PRAYER OVER MESSAGE
AS we begin this series my prayer for this message is and has been
1 - We would understand what the gifts are for.
2 - We would know that we are to use them - we are to be a supernatural assembly of the called out ones. A supernatural Church both from the pronouncement of Scripture but also from the history of the early church!
3- we would come to know a gift we never think about as a Gift of the Spirit, one of the first ones asked for by the early Church and one we will need more and more of everyday.
TRUTH -
ENGAGEMENT –
Ever learned that something was different that you thought it was?
Ever been in a conversation with someone and you think you know what you know and then you find yourself in an argument.
You know you are right and they are right and there is really no knew information being shared about what ever the argument is.
Ya know its kinda dead locked.
and Maybe there was new information shared by you or by them to you and the new information makes no difference.
Then you are really dead locked!
There is no agreement and there is no persuasion happening.
Or maybe its an argument with your self - Like “I know I put the keys there last night”
But you look and look in the bathroom drawer that has a whole lot of other stuff and “nope the keys are not there”
And you sware they were there last night.
So you might even begin to think one of the kids got in here and got the keys!
Then you get new information.
Wife says “look in the chair you we're sitting in last night”
ow you can look there and low and behold there are the keys or you can ignore that and keep digging to the drawer or start the Spanish inquisition with the kids.
Sometimes I thing we approach the things of the Scripture like that -
We are so sure that we are sure that we know that we know that we ignore new information.
Now Just to be clear - There are simple upfront plain worded things in the scripture that are crystal clear and are never to be rethought.
and at the same time we are tough sometimes things that are not in the scriptures and we need to come to a different understanding sometimes.
TENSION
The problem is that when we take the “I’m sure becasue I’m sure” mentality in to our walk with Jesus
We can quickly find ourselves off in error missing some things.
and when we miss things our life seems to be without Jesus and it certainly lack the victory we have in Him.
You see the scriptures are the protection that keeps us from missing some things
They helps us lead a life that is constantly and continually conformed into the image of Jesus.
A life that counts for eternity - A life that gives glory to God in all things.
you see when we run missing something becasue we haven't let the word protect us from the theological error the scriptures says:
We are in danger of having a from of godliness but denying its power.
BACKGROUND
So lets begin with Answering the question: “What are the gifts for?”
In General overarching terms, what we will find from the whole council of Scripture is the Gifts are for the Spirit to use Gods people to glorify Himself and through that, Build up of the church -
There are several ways that happens:
There are two words that we must grab on to and understand in order for us to properly apply this idea of God people having use of Spiritual Gifts -
SO the two words that we must grab on to is one - Glorify.
The Word Glorify means to Magnify - to bring honor and praise to - What we do that, when we magnify we Reveal or display the attributes of God.
So when we Glorify God we reveal and or display the Character and Nature and the attributes of God.
The Second word and I think Equally important for us so that our application of Scripture does Glorify God is BUILDING UP.
The Word that We read in the English BUILDING UP is a word in the original language of the New Testament has the connotation of Constructing Something - It means to Build - in two ways -
Build up like construct something and
Build up as in strengthening something. Making something stronger.
In any of those ideas they both come with the necessity of adding material to something existing.
In the case of the Church we are strengthened and we are built up by the addition of new saved people to the Church.
A lot of us can attest to that. When we participate in the plan of God and are used as His instrument to bring people to Jesus and He saved them - We are strengthened in our faith,we see Him move and He is glorified.
Disciples made by the people of God to the Glory of God in the Obedience of God.
This is what Peter and the 120 people were doing in Jerusalem on Pentecost - T
hey were using the Gift of the Holy Spirit, glorifying Gog by telling the mysteries of God in there other peoples own language and what was the result?
3000 souls added to the church that DAY -
So what I want us to do is to walk through the scriptures and unpack what seems to be this hierarchy of definitions and purposes.
Kind of like what is first, second and so on.
SO we look to the Scriptures
So Peter who is writing to all the churches - letter that were spread though out the universal church to be read in every place and to everyone.
and Remember this is Peter -
The One who was to feed the sheep of jesus.
The One who was restored after denying Jesus -
The One who preached the first sermon, Part of we heard this morning.
Writes this:
1 Peter 4:10–11 (ESV)
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
All of us, in order to be good stewards of the gifts that God has given, are to Use the variance gifts God Gives us to serve one another
AND in all we do God may be honored, magnified and revealed through Jesus Christ.
So How does all that work actually?:
Well lets look the Scripture and put some things together from Scripture to understand what all that means and how that all works.
There are not in any theological importance or order but Here is what we find.
1st cor 12
remember Paul writes the Church in Corinth addressing issues with-in the church and answering 7 different Questions the church had asked Him about.
And In the three Chapters - Chapters 12, 13 and 14,
all under the title Concerning Spiritual Gifts and navigating their definition, there use and their application. Paul writes this.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
So the manifestation of the Spirit is Given to people to be used for
1 - The common good.
Looked up the word common and it means for the Good of everybody.
AND -2 UNITY
No Division in the Body. Unity - Jesus called for it! Jesus prayed for it and Paul Preached it.
So what ever gift God chooses to work through us. One of the ways it magnifies God and reveals God through Christ as well as Builds the Church is they are exercised in a community that walks in Unity together.
Another thing Spiritual Gifts are for in the framework of glorifying God and building up the church is:
the Equipping of the Saints for the good work that God has saved us for.
Paul writes to the Church in Ephesus - A Church that he spent years equipping and building up by making disciples - A church that was planted in the epicenter of demonic spiritual activity.
Ephesians 4:12–16 (ESV)
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 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.
In this passage Paul Book ends this passage, which comes right after him speaking on some Gifts of the Spirit that God gives to people in the church.
The Gifts are given - Watch this. To Equip the saints for the work of ministry, What is the work of ministry for?
For building up the church - What do we know building up to mean? Constructing and strengthening by Adding to.
Adding people as disciples to Christ. Anchoring them to Christ.
Watch the end.
Speaking the Truth in Love. The Body of Christ is held together, Every part working properly,
What happens - This love, unity and equipping of the saints Makes the Body build itself up, in love.
You see loved ones - When the gifts of the spirit are working and we are all allowing them to work in unity and harmony in love.
It is a critical part of making disciples - The Church is added to and strengthened and God is glorified.
The second Prayer of the Sermon.
What is it to be supernatural church?
Loved ones - the bases of our being a supernatural church is This:
first and foremost the greatest supernatural gift that God can possibly bestow upon any human being is
Supernatural salvation.
Regeneration unto new life by the very power of the Holy Spirit
Saving people by grace through the gift of faith,
bringing them from death in their trespasses and sins and making them alive in Christ -
That is the greatest supernatural thing that God can do and there is evidence through out the New Testament that the instrument that God uses to bring people to Jesus for that miracle is his bride - The Supernatural Church.
Who is the Church?
He gifts and equips that church, so the church can make disciples so the greatest supernatural miracle can happen.
But the gifts have to be USED
Look at what Paul Writes to the Church in Rome.
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;
in the First thee verses Paul accentuates Unity that is driven by Love and humility -
And then He says Because we have a variance of Gifts.
This is what peter means in the Variance of Grace.
Because we have different gifts. According to Grace.
LET US USE THEM!
You see loved ones - God has given you a Spiritual Supernatural Gift that you were not born with and God’s instruction clearly as a bell here in this letter to the Romans is for us to “Use them”
Which Gifts?
All of them I would say in accordance of Scripture:
This brings us to a collision of theological Understanding, A debate that has divided the church around the Gifts -
Some of us in the room and watching on live stream would say that there are some of the sign gifts that have stopped at the end of the Apostolic Age or when the Apostles died.
There are others that would say - That have not stopped.
Still others that would say that they seemingly stopped for nearly 2000 years and the suddenly in the year 1901, in a worship gathering in Los Angeles - On a street called Azusa the gifts began manifesting again.
Sadly - These three positions have left the church divided and in some cases powerless.
What I love about us - About the people of Stonewater Fellowship is one of our core values and distinctives is Unity.
This morning we have people who pray in tongues and people who think that sign gift has stopped sitting right next to each other, worshiping God together, locking arms with each other and advancing the Gospel together.
Amen?
and that is great but that still leaves us the question -
WE are still left with the question: Have they ceased or not?
In the rest of the series we will navigate the use of the gifts among the church according to the scriptures.
SO - Let me begin by suggesting that the there is nothing in Scripture that would suggest that they have ceased.
Some people will use 1 Cor 13 to say they have ceased or stopped.
1st Corinthians 13 certainly says there are gifts that will cease.
But there is a condition - They will cease when the Perfect comes.
Some would say that the Perfect that came is the Bible - The Collected old and New testaments that we hold in our hands. And there is no question that the Scriptures are complete, sufficient, inflatable and inerrant in their original form.
and we believe that and affirm that in every way!
Small problem with that thinking.
Paul, when he wrote this could not have had the Bible we hold in our hands in his mind when He wrote those words. Paul had no Idea he was sitting the New Testament as He went from place to place making disciples and equipping the saints.
What Paul was thinking was When Jesus comes again. That is the perfect that was and is to come.
Paul says :when the perfect comes the partial will stop. Those include - Prophecies, Knowledge and tongues.
So Knowledge has certainly not ceased and so nothing in scripture would indicate that the prophetic or tongues have ceased.
Your pastor would be categorized as a continuest.
I believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit continued throughout church history and continue to this day.
And the way we know that - WE have is two things -
1 - The gauge from the whole council of Scripture that would say (if I can recap):
When the gifts are manifest, are they manifest according to the Scriptures and is the result the Revealing of God through unity, their use for the common good, and Building up i.e. adding to and there by strengthening the church?
If the manifestation of the Spirit fails any of those it is very likely not of the Holy Spirit but rather something else.
2 - historical evidence that they have not ceased by the witness of the church past the end of the timeline of the New Testament.
past the Apostles:
In basic Terms The Time line of the New Testament ends about the time the end of the first century comes. About year 90-95.
so the question is do we have ANY historical evidence that the all the Gifts of the spirit, including the sign gifts were active after the end of the first century?
The answer is absolutely we do: Let me share some of them with you.
and again Some of them
This guy:
Justin Martyr: He was and author and Church leader who lived and served Jesus in from about year 90 to year 165.
Here is what He wrote and I am going to Paraphrase these - Because the original is too long.
The prophetic gifts remain with us, even to the present time. Understand that [the gifts] formerly among your people have been transferred to us.
About 20 years Later
Irenaeus of Lyons (180):
Those who are true disciples, receiving grace from Him, and in His name perform [miracles], for the common good of other men, according to the gift which each one has received from Him. For some drive out devils, so the clean frequently both believe [in Christ], and join the Church.
Others have foreknowledge of things to come: see visions, utter prophetic expressions, heal the sick by laying hands and they are made whole. and, the dead even have been raised up, and remained among us for many years.
Ad those who have received the Spirit of God, and do speak in all languages. We also hear many in the Church, possess prophetic gifts, speak all kinds of languages, bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men, and declare the mysteries of God.
This guy:
Tertullian of Carthage (208) Challenges this guy A heretic named Marcion: Let Marcion show, some prophets that speak by the Spirit of God, that predicted things to come, and have made manifest the secrets of the heart; let him produce a psalm, a vision, a prayer—only let it be by the Spirit, in an ecstasy, that is, in a rapture, whenever an interpretation of tongues has occurred to him; let him show that any woman of boastful tongue in his community has ever prophesied from among those specially holy sisters of his. All these signs of spiritual gifts are happening among my people without any difficulty, and they agree, too, with the rules, and the dispensations, and the instructions of the Creator.
44 Forty years later (248)
Origen of Alexandria says:
The Gospel has a demonstration of its own the manifestation of the Spirit and of power: of the Spirit, still preserved among Christians. They expel evil spirits, and perform many cures, and foresee certain events, according to the will of the Logos. . . . And the name of Jesus can still remove distractions from the minds of men, and expel demons, and also take away diseases. They do all in the God of all things, and of Jesus, along with a mention of his history. For by these means we too have seen many persons freed from grievous calamities, and from distractions of mind, and madness, and countless other ills, which could be cured neither by men nor devils. . . . but also in the succeeding ages, in which many cures are wrought in the name of Jesus, and certain other manifestations of no small moment have taken place.
A hundred year later we find
Basil the Great
describing the work of the Spirit in striking terms:
Through the rebirth from above . . . the Spirit enlightens all, inspires prophets, gives wisdom to lawmakers, consecrates priests, empowers kings, perfects the just, exalts the prudent, is active in gifts of healing, gives life to the dead, frees those in bondage, turns foreigners into adopted sons.
Around the same time (350),
Cyril of Jerusalem
was teaching New disciples about the person and works of the Holy Spirit like this:
He is One in nature, there are many ways, in the name of Jesus He works.
For He employs the tongue of one man for wisdom;
the soul of another He enlightens by Prophecy;
to another He gives power to drive away devils;
to another He gives to interpret the divine Scriptures.
He strengthens one man’s self-command;
He teaches another the way to give alms; another He teaches to fast and discipline himself; another He teaches to despise the things of the body; another He trains for martyrdom:
diverse in different men, yet not diverse from Himself, as it is written.
100 years later,
Augustine dedicated an entire chapter His book the City of God to the continuation of miracles.
Augustine was indignant at the suggestion that they ceased with the apostles. He claimed to have witnessed a number himself, and in an extraordinary list speaks of: healings from blindness, fistulas, breast cancer, gout, paralysis, hernia, demonization, and even death.
Over the next few weeks we will be unpacking the bumpers of scripture on these supernatural sign gifts are to be used in the local church and how we might glorify God in all we do and walk in deeper unity with each other, with Christ and His holy Spirit.
THE GOSPEL CONNECTION
And as we consider these things and move towards the scriptures in what they say to form not only what we believe but what we do and how we do it.
We must not depart form the Gospel.
The Gift is the Holy Spirit that we receive when God saves us.
All of us born in to sin and God, who is Just and Holy And righteous must have his justice satisfied and His wrath against sin appeased.
So what did God Do? - God came and satisfied Justice and appeased His own wrath for those who trust in Christ.
and those Who trust in Christ, See the goodness of what God has done and receive the gift of faith and this causes them to repent which is the bibles way of saying submit to Jesus being lord and master of our life.
And from the moment of salvation on we live an ongoing life of repentance and continually being conformed into the image of Jesus.
Transformed, Made New, Old has Gone and New has come.
We must not ever place these working of the Spirit above the supernatural work of God in Salvation!
Loved ones If God did not endow his church with any other Gift than our salvation so that we could be washed clean and made new and made alive in Christ - to know Him and Enjoy Him forever
Worship and a life being a living sacrifice for Him loving Him and serving him with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength would still be the most reasonable act of worship.
And Church he has gifted His church, with all of the Gifts of the Scriptures, to be used to Glorify Him
ONE GIFT WE NEED TODAY
Lastly -
In the midst of what has happened over the last 70 or so years that is beginning to manifest itself in our culture currently in ways some of us thought unbelievable just a decade ago.
Turn with me to Acts Chapter 4 and let look at a Gift of the Sprit that we don't think usually as a supernatural gift but one that we need now and have needed for the past centruy or so.
And I think the reality is, if there were a first gift that I would pray for myself and for others, second only to salvation and Love it is this Gift.
29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
here is some background -
Peter and john have been arrested for going and making disciples in Jerusalem.
A gift of Healing was administered by the Holy Spirit and Peter preached the gospel empowered by the Resurrection of Jesus.
and about 5000 people Jewish people were saved and converted to become Christians.
This upset the Jewish leadership and so they arrested Peter and John.
The council threatened them and said “don't teach in the name of Jesus anymore and Peter and John Got bold.
I'm paraphrasing - Do we listen to man or God for we cannot stop testifying about what we have seen.
They get released and go back to their friends house and tell their friends what happened and they app began to pray
Look what they prayed for and Look what they did.
29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
They Prayed for Boldness - They were ALL filled with the Spirit and the Spirit gave them Boldness.
and they continued to speak the word of God with Boldness.
If you do not recognize the times we live in - The Church needs boldness! The Church has needed an increase in boldness for the last 70 years or so and somehow it has lost its boldness.
We need boldness we must pray for Boldness to speak the word of God and share the Gospel to anyone, anywhere anytime.
Lets PRAY
PRAYER TEAM
