The Gifts of the Spirit

Introduction

One of my favorite Christmas stories is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I grew up with the Disney version where Mickey is Bob Crachit. If you remember the story Ebennezzar Scrooge was a rich old guy who hated Christmas. Bob was his faithful loyal employee who barely had any money. Providing for his family during Christmas was nearly impossible let along buying gifts. If the story hadn’t gone the way it did with Scrooge being visited by three ghosts and waking up from his greed, Tiny Tim Bob Crachit’s son would have woken up that day without a present.

It is a horrible thing to go through Christmas and not receive a Christmas present. Depending on the economy, some parents just aren’t able to afford presents. According to one source, back in 2024 over 200,000 children in the US would not receive a present. As we have been looking at the topic of the gifts of Christmas this year, we are looking at the gifts that each Christian has because Jesus was born, died, was buried and rose again for our sins.

Within the church, I think there are a lot of Christians who feel like they haven’t received a gift from Jesus like everyone else has. Sure they are saved, but they could never do some of the things other Christians do. They could never preach a sermon like pastor Karises, they could never teach the kids like Keith Schroeder, they couldn’t lead singing like Luke; so maybe, God just passed them by when he was handing out the gifts.

This evening I am going to be preaching on gifts that everyone of us have; you just might not know it. Our text is going to be found in Eph 4: 6-16. This text makes a claim that when Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth, he triumphed over Satan. Ephesians 4:8 “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” Other passages in the NT paint the picture of Christ doing a victory parade like a conquering general right in the face of all our spiritual foes. The picture is an analogy to a roman general marching into Rome victorious bring his spoils of war with him. In Christ’s victory, he gave gifts unto men.

There are four passages in the bible that talk about what we call spiritual gifts. One is here in Ephesians, One in Romans, One in 1 Corinthians and then in 1 Peter. But when Jesus rose from the dead and ascended up on high, believers received spiritual gifts. Tonight, we aren’t going to go into too much detail about them, but this next year we will be doing a series on them from Romans when we get to Romans 12 and then we will be covering more exhaustively the doctrine of spiritual gifts on Wednesday at some point. Tonight will just be an introduction to the topic.

What is a spiritual gift?

What are these gifts given to men? I love the definition given by Tim Keller for these so let’s start there:

Differing abilities given by the Holy Spirit to each believer to meet needs in such a way that it creates a community of people who are growing into the fullness of the character of Christ.

Grace

The word most often used to describe these gifts is χαρισματα from which we get the word charismatic. The root word is χαρισ which is our word grace in Ephesians 4:7 “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” This connection is important if you remember the meaning of grace. Two years ago we did a study on the habits of grace in that study I defined grace as

Grace is the favorable disposition of God that moves him to freely give and act on our behalf.

Grace is experienced in salvation when God accomplishes our salvation for us. Grace is experienced when God gives us an unexpected blessing in life. But grace is also experienced when God gives us the strength and ability to serve Him. It is this sense in which grace is being used. God is enabling us through his holy spirit to meet the needs of the Church.

As I mentioned, there are various lists of gifts in four different passages, our text gives us four gifts: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers. I am not going to go into the lists tonight, but just to point out that there are different categories of gifts in the bible. I think it is helpful for us to understand spiritual gifts by also noting what they are not.

The Spirit

Spiritual gifts are not natural talents- Some people like to throw in the spiritual gifts the ability to play piano or sing well because they know some people are better than others at this. I understand that but spiritual gifts are not natural talents you were born with. They are given by the Spirit and they can only be used well when we are walking in the Spirit. A lost person can play the piano with excellence, but a lost person cannot perform spiritual gifts the way God desires because he doesn’t have the Spirit.

Spiritual gifts are not ministries- they are also not ministries in the sense of how we think of a ministry. What I mean by that is you do not have to have Pastor Shirk come up to you and say hey I want you to use your spiritual gift in this area. Some churches have fallen into a wrong philosophy that you cannot do anything in the church unless the pastor gives you permission. When you truly understand spiritual gifts, that philosophy of ministry has to go out the window because the Spirit is in control of the gifts. Not everything has to be organized and functionalized. In fact sometimes when it is, it sucks the life out of true ministry. You don’t need my permission to go and bring someone a cake for their birthday. We don’t have to organize a group of women to make meals for the sick or organize the women to pray and study the bible together. We do because we prioritize those things; but if the spiritual gifts are functioning properly, it doesn’t all have to come through me.

Spiritual gifts are not the fruits of the Spirit.- they are also not the fruits of the Spirit. Gal tells us the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering etc. Those are some of the things using your spiritual gifts may produce in others, but those are the bi-product of a personal walk with the Spirit. They go hand in hand but they are not the same. Unfortunately, a person can utilize their spiritual gift in the flesh and do much damage. Fruit has to do with who you are but gifts are what you do. Fruit is the end, gifts are the means

So a spiritual gift is an ability given by the Spirit.

Who has a spiritual gift?

Maybe you feel like tiny Tim. You don’t feel like you have a gift and if you do, you don’t know what it is. I want us to jump down to Ephesians 4:14–16 “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”

This is one big sentence that began in vs 7 and ends in vs 16. So all of this is connected to the idea of the gifts Christ gives. I want you to notice though in vs 16 the words whole and every. Whenever Paul teaches on spiritual gifts he uses the metaphor of a body and the emphasis is that the whole body has these gifts and each and everyone of us has a gift. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 12:4–7 “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.”

There is no tiny Tim in Christianity. We have all received a spiritual gift. Now the verse goes on to tell us we have all received diversities of gifts, that means differing gifts. Not everyone has the same gift. Guess what God may not have gifted and called you to do what I am doing tonight, but that is alright. He has gifted you in another area.

Back in vs 1, Paul made a pivotal statement: I would not have you ignorant. Paul did not want the Corinthians to be ignorant, unknowing about spiritual gifts and yet in our day and age there is so much confusion about this topic. It is not good because without proper knowledge the church has misused their gifts in some cases. Charismatic, Pentecostal churches fail to understand the purpose of certain of the gifts. But in our churches the other error is possible more grave: we just don’t talk about it at all. I would wager to say that most IFB churches do not know or actively seek to practice their spiritual gifts. If I asked you what your gift is, what would you say? Many would have no answer and this is a shame.

You have a gift, it just might be still sitting under the tree.

What is the purpose of a spiritual gift?

What is the purpose of the spiritual gifts? Why do we have them? The passage gives us three reasons why we have been given these gifts. Ephesians 4:12 “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:” Technically this is one reason with three elements to it.

Perfecting the Saints

The word perfecting here carries the idea of bringing someone to maturity so that they are equipped to serve. It’s kinda like on the job training. When you hire a new employee, you expect him to eventually be able to do the job by himself, but in the beginning, he goes through training. So the spiritual gifts are given so that each member of the church can be matured and prepared for whatever service God has for them.

The Work of the Ministry

As I said these are all technically one reason with three aspects to it. So if the spiritual gifts are intended to mature you and prepare believers, it is so that they can serve God. Ministry is about serving to meeting needs within the church and there is no human need that the spiritual gifts do not address in some way.

If there is a need to know the truth, there is a spiritual gift for that.

If there is a need to know how to apply that truth to my personal life, there is a gift for that.

If I have need of physical help, there is a gift for that.

If I am struggling financially, there is a gift for that.

If I am struggling emotionally, there is a gift for that.

If there is a need for organization and direction, there is a gift for that.

If there is unrepentant sin in my life, there is a gift for that.

The Building of the Body

Edifying means to build something up instead of tearing something down. The unfortunate truth is that if we don’t use our spiritual gifts, it is like leaving a building dormant for years to decay. There are two ways in which spiritual gifts build us up:

Spiritual gifts form us into the image of Christ- vs 13 When I use my gifts, it has an impact both on myself and on the person I am serving. They challenge us to be more like Christ in how we relate to one another. And so we are building brick by brick other believers until we get to the day that we are all like Christ.

Spiritual gifts also form us into a body- There are no passive unemployed members of the church. - In small churches there are often not enough people doing things and so people are doing things they aren’t gifted to do; so they find themselves burning out. In larger churches, there are too many people and so many can’t actively get involved. There are certain things that you and only you can do in the church. As we use our gifts, we begin to function as a family, a body, a group of people who are interconnected. It is only when each of us does this that the church will truly experience connection and community.

Conclusion:

When we aren’t opening the gift God has given us it can lead to all kinds of problems in the church.

burnout- burnout occurs when the joy of serving has been sucked out of us by the business of ministry. Spiritual gifts sustain joy. Often people burn out because they are doing something they weren’t gifted to do in the first place or they aren’t drawing strength from the Holy Spirit to excercise their gifts. I will not go so far as to say this is always the case, but it is often the case. One example of this can be seen in someone who is not gifted with administration who is placed in a position to lead. They are going to find themselves constantly in conflict with others, failing to perform and guilt when they fail ultimately leading to discouragement and checking out.

b. conflict/ jealousy- people who are walking in the flesh still have spiritual gifts, but they aren’t working correctly. You will find conflict on the lines of where peoples gifts differ. Someone with the gift of prophecy is going to want to come down hard on people while the merciful will never address sin when they are living in the flesh. They begin to pick and fight with each other because they think the other person is wrong in how they are approaching the situation.

c. Passivity- When there is no teaching on spiritual gifts, there is passivity. People come and they sit in church and don’t get involved. They become receivers and not givers. They demand to be fed but they never feed. Passivity leads to stagnation (doing nothing) and ultimately to weak, carnal Christians.

The remedy for all of this is Love. 1Cor 13 in the middle of the teaching on spiritual gifts in 1 Cor. Notice Ephesians 4:15–16 “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”

Love is the motive that drives spiritually using your spiritual gifts for the benefit of the church.

Maybe you are here tonight and you don’t know what your spiritual gift is. We will try to help you identify it as we go through Romans and as we have our teaching on wednesday nights. I would beg you to try to join us for those.