The Holy Spirit: Spiritual Gifts (Part 4)

Review

Turn to 1 Corinthians 12:1-7.

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

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

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

What are the spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12:8-11?

Next slide here. Reference table on handout here.

Wisdom - insight into/revelation of new doctrinal truth

Knowledge - insight into doctrinal truth already revealed

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

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

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

Prophecy - in context, the ability to disclose future events

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

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

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

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

Message

Next slide here:

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

Theologians differ on this subject.

Whenever you come to a subject in the Bible where there are different views, you should do a couple of things:

Study the Bible for yourself.

Pray. Be surrendered to the leading of the Spirit.

Ask your pastor - God has placed them in your life for a reason.

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

It seems to me that to be logically consistent, you have two options:

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.

In other words, to be logically consistent, either you believe that all of the gifts across the six groups are still in effect, or you believe that the miraculous were temporary and specifically for the purpose of confirming the gospel message of the apostles while others were permanent and for the use in the local church.

Next slide here:

To be fair, no matter which conclusion a person may reach, there will be some questions that cannot be adequately answered.

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 base 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 relevant for the purpose of edifying the local church, while others were temporary and for the purpose of authenticating the gospel message and facilitating its spread during the days of the apostles (healing, casting out of demons, speaking in other languages, drinking poison without injury, etc). 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.”

“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

Questions?

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What is speaking in tongues?

Easier to interpret Scriptures must always be used to understand the harder to interpret Scriptures.

Acts 2:4-6.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 2:4

These were undoubtedly spoken living languages; the word used in 2:6, 8 is dialektō, which means “language” and not ecstatic utterance. This gives insight into what is meant by “tongues” in chapters 2; 10; 19; and in 1 Corinthians 12–14.

1 Corinthians 14:1-5.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary (14:2)

What Paul meant by speaking in a tongue is a matter of considerable debate. One common view is to see Paul’s use of the word “tongue” (glōssa) against the background of first-century pagan religions and thus define it as ecstatic speech similar to that expressed by… female prophetesses. …Others see the tongues-speaking in 1 Corinthians as ecstatic speech similar to that of Pythia, [a famous female prophetess in Greece]

That may be possible, but if Paul intended to use the word in that way, he doesn’t make that clear. Paul didn’t make a habit of drawing from secular or pagan backgrounds. Instead…

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 14:2

the seedbed for most of Paul’s theological concepts and the usual source of his terms was the Old Testament.

If the gift of speaking in tongues were active in the church today, it would be performed in agreement with Scripture.

It would be a real and intelligible language (1 Corinthians 14:10).

It would be for the purpose of communicating God’s Word with a person of another language (Acts 2:6–12).

It would be exercised in the church in agreement with the command God gave through Paul, (1 Corinthians 14:27–28).

It would also be in accordance with 1 Corinthians 14:33.

What is your spiritual gift?

Do I have to take a personality test or spiritual gift quiz to know my spiritual gift?