One Spirit Many Gifts

Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
0 ratings
· 1 view
Notes
Transcript
Handout
It seems right that coming out of the gift giving season that we turn our attention to spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit gives each one of us gifts so we the church, Haverhill Church of the Nazarene can more faithfully show his love to each other and the community God has called us to serve.
Consider a box of crayons. Each crayon has its own shade and personality. The blue crayon can’t become red, and the green crayon can’t be yellow, yet together they create beautiful art. Similarly, God has given us diverse gifts, no two the same, to create a masterpiece of community that reflects His love to the world.
In our text today there are 9 gifts listed. All of them equally important to work together to advance the mission of God. Often times this text is preached with an emphasis on the gifts. A careful reading of the text reveals another emphasis. Same Spirit or one spirit is a common refrain throughout today’s text, the emphasis is on the Holy Spirit, who decides which gift each one of us should have. There is only one spirit, but many gifts working together to do the work God has given us to do.
As we wrestle with this text today how has the Spirit gifted you? To carry out the work God has given us to do it is all our many gifts working together.

The Church at Corinth

The church at Corinth was a church with divisions and dissension. He spends chapter 11 giving instructions on public worship, and coming to the LORD’s table. In chapter 12 he begins to teach them how our many gifts work together.
Paul uses two illustrations on how our gifts work together. The first one is that through one triune God he gifts or equips each one of us differently. To work together for the common good. He further explains that these varied gifts work together much like the parts of the human body. Like all parts of the human body, all the gifts are equally important for the body of Christ to do the work God has given us to do.
Romans 12:3–8 NRSV
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
There are nine gifts listed in our text today. They are:
Wisdom
Knowledge
Faith
Healing
Miracles
Prophecy
Discernment
Languages
Interpretation
These are the gifts at work in Corinth. They are many, some may seem more glamorous to us. We may even talk glowingly about someone who has been given the gift of healing or miracles, but the truth is all of these gifts are equally important to carry on the mission of God. Each one of us are given these gifts through the Holy Spirit at work in and through us.
1 Corinthians 12:11 NRSV
11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
There is unity in our diversity. We are united in the work God has given us to do. We are united in the same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, to work together in our diverse giftings.
Expectations
The Holy Spirit enables you to use the gifts he has given you. Sometimes we can have the expectation that someone else should use the opperate in the gift God has given you. That is an unfair and unrealistic expectation.
The expectation we should have of each other and our various gifts is how can they work together to do the work God has given us to do.

One Spirit, Many Gifts

We can see from Paul’s illustration of the body that the church at Corinth looked at some gifts as more important than others. The truth is your gift is equally important as mine for us to do the work God has given us to do.
To use an imperfect illustration once again, our gifts are like a box of crayons. Each color in the box does its own job in a work of art. Some crayons may be broken but they can still do what they were gifted to do, and be part of the work of art. Why is this an imperfect illustration? When i sit down to color with the boys I have a tendency to only use the colors most appealing to me, and not use the ones I don’t like. God uses all of us. He has gifted all of us to do the work he has given us to do. How has God gifted you? May the same Spirit that gifts each one of us enable us to work together in diverse ways to do the work God has given us to do.
According to the sermon, what should be our expectations towards each other's spiritual gifts?
Why does the sermon emphasize the phrase 'one Spirit'? What significance does it hold in understanding spiritual gifts?
How can the analogy of a box of crayons help us understand the diversity of spiritual gifts?
What is the main purpose of discussing spiritual gifts in the context of the church?
Other scriptures on gifts
Romans 12:3-8, Ephesians 4:1-16
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more
Earn an accredited degree from Redemption Seminary with Logos.