The Holy Spirit: Spiritual Gifts (Part 3)

Review

Turn to 1 Corinthians 12:1-7.

What is a spiritual gift? - 1 Corinthians 12:1-7.

Gift: “a gift of grace, a favor received” - Pastor Frank Camp

“A spiritual gift is a sovereignly given grace that is to be exercised so that the body of Christ can be conformed to the image of Christ and that people can be ministered to on the behalf of Christ.” (1 Cor. 12:7; Eph. 4:16) - Pastor Frank Camp

“Spiritual gifts are not just [natural] skills and abilities, but are God-given abilities that will edify the church…the fact of the divine origin of spiritual gifts is abundantly CLEAR.” - Pastor Frank Camp

How do you receive a spiritual gift? - 1 Corinthians 12:7, 11.

Verse seven:

Manifestation: to show forth, to expose, to make known

The showing forth, the making known of the Spirit is given to whom? To every man to profit withal, in other words, to be a help to all in the local church.

Verse eleven:

Worketh: Works, operates, empowers

The Spirit of God continually energizes or empowers these gifts in us, distributing to whom? To every man separately as he will.

So who empowers individual believers with spiritual gifts? The Spirit of God.

Every believer is indwelt by the Spirit of God, therefore, every believer partakes of God’s grace and receives a spiritual gift when they are saved.

You don’t pray for it.

You don’t earn it.

You don’t select it.

If you are a child of God, then your Heavenly Father has especially equipped you in some way to serve Him by ministering to others in the local church.

What happens if I don’t know my spiritual gift?

If God is sovereign enough to know exactly what gift to give you, then He is sovereign enough to put you where your gift is most useful. You are needed, because every member of the body is essential to the body.

Message

Next slide here:

Lists of spiritual gifts:

Mk. 16:15-18/Heb. 2:3-4.

Rom. 12:6-8.

1 Cor. 12:8-11.

1 Cor. 12:28-30.

Eph. 4:11-13.

1 Pet. 4:10-11.

Next slide here. Reference table on handout here.

Read 1 Corinthians 12:8-11.

1 Corinthians 12:8-11.

Wisdom - insight into/revelation of new doctrinal truth

Your first question should be, “Pastor Tim, how did you come up with this definition?”

*I utilized Bible Knowledge Commentary and A Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical…” for definitions.

Compare 1 Corinthians 1:24, 2:6-7; Ephesians 1:8, 3:10; Colossians 2:3)

Paul had the divine ability to reveal and explain new doctrine.

Knowledge - insight into doctrinal truth already revealed

This is a supernatural ability (spiritual gift) to apply doctrinal truth to life. Paul does this repeatedly in his letter to the Corinthians.

Compare 1 Corinthians 12:1-3, 11:3. Also see 1 Corinthians 3:16, 5:6, 6:2-3, 6:9, 6:15-16, 6:19, etc.

Faith - an unusual measure of trust in God that He would enable them to perform any required miracle

It is a faith “beyond that exercised by most Christians.”

David K. Lowery, “1 Corinthians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 533.

It is a faith that enables one to perform the miraculous - such as healing, miracles, and tongues.

Compare Mark 11:23; 1 Corinthians 13:2.

Healing - “the ability to restore health and also to hold off death itself temporarily” - Bible Knowledge Commentary

Compare Acts 3:7, 9:40, 19:12, 20:9–10.

Miracles - the ability to cast out demons, “inducing physical disability or even death” - Bible Knowledge Commentary

Compare Acts 5:5, 9, 13:11, 19:11-12.

Prophecy - in context, the ability to disclose future events

Prophecy has two meanings throughout the Old and New Testaments:

Fore-telling: to disclose future events

Forth-telling: to declare the message of God; to preach

The Old Testament prophets did both. For example, read the minor prophets and you’ll find preaching of judgment and repentance as well as predictions of coming judgment on Israel and of future restoration in the kingdom of God.

Since the word “prophecy” is being used in the immediate context of “miracles” and “discerning of spirits”, it seems better to understand “prophecy” as referring to the ability to disclose future events.

Compare Acts 11:27-28, 21:11; 1 Corinthians 11:4-5, 14:3-5; 1 Timothy 1:18.

Discerning of Spirits - “the gift to differentiate the Word of God proclaimed by a true prophet from that of a satanic deceiver” - Bible Knowledge Commentary

Compare 2 Corinthians 11:14-15; 1 John 4:1.

1 John 4:1 KJV 1900

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

When the New Testament was being written, there were many deceivers who would follow behind Paul’s ministry in particular and attempt to lead the new believers astray. The letters to the churches in Revelation 3-4 also indicate this. To protect them, God would especially gift certain believers in the local churches with the ability to discern between this truth and error.

Today, the Bible is God’s objective standard for discerning truth from error.

Tongues - “the ability to speak an unlearned, living language” - Bible Knowledge Commentary

Mention that I am giving a very narrow definition here. We will probably take some time to study this gift out more thoroughly.

Compare Acts 2:11, 10:45-46, 19:6-7; 1 Corinthians 14:22.

Acts 2:11 KJV 1900

Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

When tongues are introduced in Acts 2, it was a sign that the believers had received the Holy Ghost. It was God’s divine stamp of approval on the Gospel message.

When Cornelius and the Gentiles speak in tongues in Acts 10, it was a sign to the Jews that Gentiles also could receive the Holy Ghost.

When the disciples of John speak in tongues in Acts 19, it was a sign that they had received the Holy Ghost. Who was it a sign to? The context suggests that it was a sign to the other unbelieving Jews that were part of that synagogue in Ephesus.

1 Corinthians 14:22 (KJV 1900)

Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not…

Interpretation - “the ability to translate an unlearned, known language expressed in the assembly” - Bible Knowledge Commentary

Compare 1 Corinthians 14:27.

This is one of six lists of spiritual gifts in the New Testament. A great debate has existed for many years concerning these gifts:

Next slide here:

Are all of these gifts still in effect today, or did some accomplish their immediate purpose and pass with the apostles?

Good men differ on this subject.

Whenever you come to a subject in the Bible where good men hold different views, you should do a couple of things:

Study the Bible for yourself.

Pray. Be surrendered to the leading of the Spirit.

Sort through the evidence and make sure that you are logically consistent in your conclusion.

It seems to me that to be logically consistent, either you must believe that all of these gifts are still in effect today, or you believe that the miraculous gifts passed with the apostles. To be logically consistent in our position, we must be careful not to cherry pick which gifts we like and which ones we don’t. You must also be careful to your position on a clear definition of each gift and in context of Scripture. Easier to interpret Scriptures must always be used to understand the harder to interpret Scriptures.

I believe that some gifts were timeless and are still for today, while others were temporary. To be consistent, based on my study of Acts in particular, I conclude that some gifts, such as healing, casting out of demons, speaking in other languages, drinking poison without injury, etc - were for the purpose of authenticating the gospel message and facilitating its spread during the days of the apostles. These gifts “authenticat[ed] the apostle/prophet and His message until the Word of God was complete or until God decided to end the gift.” - Pastor Frank Camp

If a person concludes that spiritual gifts such as prophecy, speaking in tongues, and healing are still for today, then to be consistent, they must also conclude that the other spiritual are also still for today. You can find many churches that claim to prophesy, heal, and speak in heavenly tongues, but I don’t find those same churches drinking poison and I don’t think there are many that are playing with serpents either. To be logically consistent with their own position, they should.

“God can and still does perform miracles today, [but] the Holy Spirit no longer uses individuals to perform miraculous signs.” - https://www.gotquestions.org/cessationism.html