1 Corinthians 12: 1-11 "Now Concerning Spiritual Gifts"

Introduction

Good morning! I am thankful to have the opportunity to preach while Pastor Dennis is away, with the rest of the mission’s team in Japan. I am excited to share with you this morning. We will be continuing in 1stCorinthians, picking up in chapter 12, but before we begin let’s pray.

Dear God, I thank you for bringing us together this morning, I thank you for the Japan Missions team and their willingness to carry the Gospel around the world. I pray that as we look at Your Word this morning that it would be Your Word that we hear, and that it would affect our hearts. Thank You for Your love, grace and Mercy, in Jesus Name I pray, Amen.

We’re going to be looking at 1 Corinthians 12 verses 1 through 11 this morning, and you know that last week Pastor Dennis preached on 11: 17 – 34 discussing the Lord’s supper. And what we saw is that there were divisions within the Corinthian church and unfortunately this was pervasive and was affecting the way the Church viewed and understood Spiritual gifts. So, Paul is answering a question the Church has about spiritual gifts, we don’t have that question, but we do have Paul’s response. If you would look with me at 1st Corinthians 12, beginning in verse 1.

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 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.

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 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. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. [1]

The Holy Spirit enables us to proclaim Christ as Lord and serve Him (12: 1-3)

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 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.

Corinth was a town of many religious beliefs ranging from pagan Greek, roman and Egyptian worship, emperor worship and now Christianity. In pagan religious practices, individuals would chant themselves into a trance, a state of “other consciousness” and were surely influenced by demonic spirits. Apparently individuals in the Corinthian Church were claiming to have a word from God, or were claiming to be speaking the truth but were just babbling in the same vein as the pagans, or even worse, were speaking lies. Paul is making the argument that no one that is saved, and therefore has been indwelled by the Holy Spirit, can curse Christ. One of the earliest heresies was that Christ was not both truly God and Truly man, the heresy denounced Christ’s humanity, this was likely what Pau is referencing in verse 3. Christian worship is not about entering into some kind of trance, or “other consciousness” as was the practice of the pagans. Paul is likely addressing this before talking about spiritual gifts, because of some of the specific gifts that were present in the Church at Corinth, at the time Paul wrote this letter.

If we are a believer – if we can say that we believe that Christ came to Earth, born of a virgin, was both truly God and truly man, lived a perfect, sinless life that we could never live, bore our sins and God’s wrath against our sin on the cross, died, was buried and rose again three days later, ascended to heaven and is coming back someday - than we have the Holy Spirit, and it is only by the Holy Spirit that we can proclaim “Jesus is Lord”. The Holy Spirit is a reminder of God’s grace – we are saved by grace, and it is out of God’s love and grace that we have received the Holy Spirit. No one has earned the Holy Spirit just as no one has earned salvation. Because we are saved and receive the Spirt by grace, we have no reason or ground to belittle another Christian, or even ourselves, for the gift that they – or we – want and don’t have. It is the Holy Spirit that enables us to Proclaim Christ as Lord and to serve Him.

As we continue and before we get too much further, I’d like to provide you with a definition, or at least a way to think about, spiritual gifts. Macarthur, in his commentary says, “Spiritual gifts are divine enablements for ministry that the Holy Spirit gives, in some measure, to all believers and that are to be completely under His control and used for the building up of the church to Christ’s glory.”

Let’s look at Verses 4 -6.

1 Corinthians 12: 4-6

There is Variety and Unity in the body of Christ (12: 4-6)

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

‌Paul is making a reference here to the Trinity and making a point that, while there are varieties of gifts, service and activities there is one Godhead - Father, Son and Spirit - that is one God existing perfectly as three Persons. There is no division in the Trinity, only unity. There should be no division in the Church because we are united around God, who is united Himself. If there is variety this eliminates uniformity.

When I was growing up, I played rec league soccer. I was a defender for most of my time, playing soccer. And if you know much about soccer you know that the defender doesn’t get much glory – you rarely set up or score goals and you’re not scooping up the ball at the last minute as the goalie is. However, as a defender my place was behind midfield, maintaining my focus and being prepared to put pressure on the opposing team if they broke through. If I tried to play a different position and became more focused on my own glory, then the team would suffer. My coaches taught the whole team that we each had a specific position to play, and that each one was important. Without everyone playing their position correctly we could lose and the whole team suffer. As the Church we each have a specific gifting and a “position to play” if you will. When we play the position that we are gifted in – even when it’s not very prestigious or exciting – we enable the whole Church to succeed and move forward. If we become more focused on what we want, what makes us look good or feel good than what improves the Church and promotes the gospel, then we risk damage to the Church as a whole. As the church, our unity comes from God.

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We are not to have variety at the expense of unity or unity at the cost of variety. We are to have both unity and variety in the body of Christ. Both are possible when, and only when, we are bound together, in love, by the Gospel.

All believers have at least one spiritual gift, and we are to use these to build each other up for the glory of God. Our spiritual gifts are empowered by God, they are not something we create within ourselves. This is more reason to celebrate a variety of service and seek unity, because God has given the gifts, just as He has given salvation and the Holy Spirit.

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1 Corinthians 12:7-11

Gifts are given for the common good, according to God’s will (12: 7-11)

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 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. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

Our spiritual gifts are not given to us to make us look or feel good. They are given to us for the common good according to God’s will. But what is the common good? We, as sinful humans, are prone to only considering is good for us – more precisely, what WE think is good for us.

In our human selfishness and self-centeredness, we often only focus on ourselves – “What can I get out of it” “What’s in it for me” but spiritual gifts are not for us as individuals. They are for the building up of the body of Christ. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4: 11 – 16

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up 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 mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 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. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 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. [1]

In 1st Corinthians Paul is dealing with a range of symptoms that all stem from a lack of Christian love and unity and Ephesians 4 is talking about unity in the body of Christ. The fact that a discussion on spiritual gifts is found in both should help us to understand that unity in the church must be active – not passive. In Ephesians 4 Paul plainly says that the spiritual gifts are 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”. Spiritual gifts are given to believers out of God’s grace for us to use them for the common good – that is to build each other up and encourage one another in love. We become united by focusing first on the Gospel. When God gave Moses the ten commandments, the first one is “You shall have no other gods before me” – disobeying that commandment makes the other 9 impossible to follow. Likewise, we, as Christians must have the gospel first in our mind – without that we cannot be united.

We use our gifts to build up the body – but to do this we need to know our gifts.

Beginning in verse 8 we see a list of gifts that Paul gives us. This list is not exhaustive and was certainly specific to the Corinthian church in some ways. We will briefly examine these gifts

An utterance of wisdom and utterance of knowledge are similar; an utterance of wisdom being the God-given ability to understand God’s word and apply it to practical, everyday living and an utterance of knowledge being a God-given ability to explain God’s word with insights that can only come from God. These are rightfully associated with the gifts and ability of preaching and teaching.

The gift of faith goes beyond saving faith or persevering faith that all believers possess, but is rather referring to a faith that enables one to endure suffering, hardship, and difficulty – all the way to martyrdom. This type of faith has the connotation of faithfulness as the believer and possessor of this gift has a special ability to endure as a result of faith.

The gift of healing is the gift that enables the individual, by the power of God, to miraculously heal an individual. This gift was seen in Jesus, the Apostles and select others in the founding era of the Church to bring legitimacy to the Gospel message.

The gift of miracles refers to the ability to cast out demons. This was also a gift which was given to bring legitimacy to the Gospel message, especially as it arrived in new territory.

The gift of prophecy is the gift of “speaking forth” as it pertains to a message from God. Prophecy does not inherently mean prediction – that connotation did not occur until the middle ages, long after scripture was recorded. Now, prophecy is referring to speaking the truth of God, reminding God’s people of the truth and explaining God’s word to the people so as to build up, encourage and console.

The gift of distinguishing between Spirits. This is a special kind of discernment that appears to have been desperately needed at Corinth. This kind of discernment comes from God, especially from studying God’s word and enables the bearer of the gift to discern or distinguish the truth from lies.

The gift of speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues. This is a pair of gifts; a language spoken in public that cannot be translated is not useful – as Paul discusses in chapter 14. The Corinthians placed a very high importance on speaking in tongues, as that was the pagan background they came out of. But they placed such a high importance on the sign, they were not analyzing what was being said, hence the reason Paul is emphasizing interpretation. The gift of tongues was also given to give legitimacy to the gospel.

You may look at the list Paul gives and think “I don’t know if I have any of those gifts”. That’s ok! Paul lists out 9 different and specific gifts. This list is not exhaustive; there are additional lists of spiritual gifts in Romans 12: 6-8, 1 Corinthians 12: 28 – 30, Ephesians 4: 11 and 1 Peter 4: 9 – 11. None of these lists is exhaustive, and God gives each at least one gift, that will be needed and helpful in the Christian community that each individual is in. Each of these different gifts is given by one and the same Spirit – the Holy Spirit. We can choose to be upset we don’t have the gift we want, or we can choose to embrace what our gifting is and serve in the ways we can, where we are.

The Corinthians suffered from disunity even among spiritual gifts. This disunity created animosity among members and a desire to have “more important gifts” which surely led to needs not being met because everyone was trying to fill the same role. Our spiritual gifts are just that – a gift. We should accept and use them in humility, being thankful to God for His grace. If we have a gift that is seen as “better” or “more important” then we should not hold that above other people; if we have a gift that we don’t think is very important we shouldn’t belittle ourselves; we did nothing for the gifts we possess. They are a gift of God’s grace.

Conclusion

The Holy Spirit enables us to proclaim Christ as Lord and gives us gifts for service to God; God, being united as the trinity is a model of how we as Christians should love one another, seeking unity within variety - not uniformity; finally we are given gifts for the common good so that we might build each other up for the growth of the kingdom.

Earlier, I talked about playing the right position, but you can’t play if you aren’t on the team. Here shortly we are going to have a time of response, if you’ve never trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior, or if you’re not sure, or you don’t know what that means, then I would love to talk to you about that. You see that too is an act of God’s grace – because God, in His sovereignty- sent Jesus Christ, both truly God and truly man, born of a virgin and lived a perfect sinless life. He bore my sin, He bore your sin on the cross – and He bore God’s wrath against our sin. And He really, literally died, He was buried, and He rose again on the Third Day. And He ascended to Heaven where He currently sits at the right hand of the Father, awaiting His real, and literal return to Earth. Or maybe today you say I am a Christian, I am saved, but I’m not really serving, I’m not really involved, I don’t even know where to begin. We have plenty of opportunities for service, whatever your gifting, I’d love to talk to you about that as well.

Whatever is on your heart, whether at your seat, here with me or Logan, however we need to respond, would you respond?

Lets Pray.

Dear God, thank You for Your Word, thank You for the Holy Spirit and the spiritual gifts that you give to all believers. Thank You for allowing us to be of service to You, we as that You would give us wisdom as to what gifts we may have and how to use those gifts; that whatever gifts we have that we would serve with them and use them to build each other up to your glory. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen.