What are the Gifts of the Holy Spirit?
Notes
Transcript
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
When you are saved, you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit!
Major Point #1: The Holy Spirit is THE Gift
He is THE gift and He is the giver of the gifts. They are from Him!
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are not from us! They are the Spirit working through us!
They are not something that we originate, create, or fabricate!
They are something that God originates and gives to us, for the purpose of working through us!
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware.
In 1 Cor 12:1, the word gifts is not in the Greek, it is actually inserted by translators
As you can see in the NASB translation, it is in italics. The reason being, the NASB translator were trying to be as accurate as possible.
And so, they infer that Paul is talking about the gift, which he is, so they insert it for understanding
But, this is helpful for us when it comes to understanding what the gifts are
Paul is beginning by talking about spiritual people
Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) (πνευματικός)
πνευματικός (pneumatikos), one who is spiritual
So, who is one who is spiritual? Paul explains in:
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.
We know that when you confess that Jesus is Lord and truly make Him Lord of your life, that you receive the HS.
When you receive the HS, you are a spiritual person.
So, we could say that those who have the HS are spiritual persons and when you have the HS, you have access to the gifts of the Spirit.
Remember Major Point #1: The HS is THE Gift
And, as THE gift, we have access to His Gifts..
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;
So, here is the first time in this passage that we see the word “gift”
So, what is the word gift?
Lexham Theological Wordbook χάρισμα
χάρισμα (charisma). n. neut. something graciously given; a gift
The root of the the word charisma is the word charis which literally means grace
so the charisma is the grace gifts
This is where the title “Charismatic” comes from
Those who believe in the continuation of the gifts are charismatics
Thus we have the grace gifts of the HS
I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but another point to note:
The greek word charisma is used to describe all of the gifts of the HS mentioned in scripture!
28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.
This is a continuation of where we are reading and Paul has already made the connection between grace and gifts
6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”
10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 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.
I have read every list of gifts in scripture and all of the connect grace and gifts.
You see, there is no distinction between groups of gifts in the scriptures.
This is important, as some want to claim that some gifts have ceased while others have continued.
As we discuss spiritual gifts going forward, there are a few words that I will use that we need to define:
Cessationist: believe some of the gifts have ceased
Continuationist: believe all of the gifts have continued and are available for today
Sensationalist: seeks “sensations” or emotional experiences with God
To be clear, this is a not a primary doctrine of the faith, and therefore someone landing in one of these categories is not a heretic
Heresy: belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious (especially Christian) doctrine
Theological Triage
Some give and take on what is secondary, tertiary, etc.
So, as you can see, what you believe about whether the gifts continued or not, is not a primary issue
I land in the continuationist camp and the main reason being scripture never indicates that the gifts ceased.
In fact, I see the opposite:
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.
31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.
39 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
So, as you can see, there are clear commands to desire the gifts and the encouragement to Timothy to fan into flame the gift he received from Paul
Because of these commands, unless there is a command to stop pursuing the gifts, then I believe it is what we must do as the church
So, there is a theological reason to teach on the gifts, but I personally have experiences that I will share as we travel down the road.
I say all of this to say that if you are a cessationist, or believe some of the gifts have ceased, please remain with us! You brothers and sister who disagree are not heretics.
And, maybe once the gifts are explained biblically, you might see that they aren’t the crazy things that you have seen on internet clips
And, if you are open but cautious, hopefully this will clear up some confusion about the gifts
Finally, if you are a continuationist, but haven’t had good/biblical, teaching this might help you out as well!
So, my goal in this series is the same as Paul’s, to teach so that you are not uninformed
Sorry for the long tangent, but this is super important!
Back to what the gifts are!
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.
This leads us to:
Major Point #2: The gifts of the Spirit are manifestations of the Spirit for the common good!
Manifestation just means to make known
So, the gifts are the HS making Himself known!
And, for the common good! For the good of others!
The gifts themselves are not intended solely to build ourselves up!
Now, I will argue that at times the gifts do build us up and encourage us, but that is not their main purpose!
Paul says later in
12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
Additionally:
8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” 9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 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,
So, what are the gifts of the HS?
They are the HS inside of us making Himself known through us for the building up of others, particularly they body!
And so many often times, and probably what was happening in Corinth, people are pursuing and operating the gifts for personal gain
This is not the point!
Often times this is what sensationalists are doing, they are seeking an emotional experience with God for building themselves up!
We talked earlier about how we also call continuationists charismatics, but I have a term for sensationalists who go to the extreme
I call them charismaniacs! Because they go too far and end up seeking the weird rather than just seeking God and allowing Him to move through them!
Now, to be clear, it is certainly not wrong to want to experience God, but when we come to Him because we want an emotional experience rather than for who He is, we have missed the point!
So, we have what the gifts are, they are the HS moving in and through us for the building up of His body!
That is going to finish off this morning. Next week we will talk a little more about the gifts and what they are.
Then, we will begin looking at each of these gifts individually (mostly) in the weeks to come.
Starting on 11/3, Julia and I will be teaching a class on the gifts where we will go deeper on the gifts and ask the Lord if He will bless us with these gifts.
If you would like to participate in the class, we are needing to know in the next few weeks. There is a cost on the class and we need to order books. The class cost of the class is $120 total per log-in/family including the book. And will last 39 weeks.
We want everyone who wants to attend to be able to. So, if you want to come, but cannot afford it, let me know and you are welcome to come.
The class times will be 8-9am Sunday morning and 1:30-2:30 sunday after noons. It will be the same class each week, just at two different times.
If you want to join, it would be easiest if you will send me an e-mail or a text message letting me know you are interested and give me your email address. This will be used for your class log-in.
As we close out this morning, I encourage you to seek the Lord and see if He would like to give you a or some gifts.
If you want us to pray with you, we would be happy to.