Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Reading

1 Cor 12:1-

Pray

One Spirit

Intro

Warm-up Exercise:

If you’re a disciple of Christ, repeat after me:

“Holy Spirit”

“

“The Holy Spirit is present and active in the church”

“I will trust the Holy Spirit to guide me”

“I will not grieve the Holy Spirit by exaggerating or denying his work in my life”

Unfortunately an often misunderstood and divisive topic

Cause of many denominational distinctives

God’s purpose for us

Legalism and

To rediscover, embrace, and pursue all that He has determined to do in us through the work of the Holy Spirit!

Discernment

There’s so much deception, so many counterfeits and frauds, so how can we discern/know what of what we see or experience is truly a movement or work of the Holy Spirit?

The Extremes

Those who idolize metaphysical, supernatural experiences that the word of God and discernment take a back seat to their “personal experiences”.

Those who idolize intellectualism and are so uncomfortable with what they can’t explain that they minimize the presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit.

A Legitimate Concern

:1

“gifts” is not in the Greek, but is subject of the passage.

Here Paul is concerned about making a clear distinction between the that which is born of the Spirit (Holy Spirit) and that which is born of the flesh.

“Now Concerning”

“Now concerning the matters about which you wrote (i.e.

marriage and sexuality)

“Now concerning the betrothed”

“Now concerning food offered to idols”

“Now concerning spiritual gifts”

“Now concerning the collection for the saints”

“Now Concerning our brother Apollos”

Paul/God’s desire for all believer’s

Key Words:

Spiritual - pneumatikos - from the Spirit

Identifying the Unspiritual

John 3:6-8

Uninformed - agnoeo (prefix “a” without/not; gnosis = knowledge) - ignorant, not to know, without knowledge (experiential knowledge).

Paul/God is saying that he does not want the Corinthians/Us to misunderstand and miss out on what the Holy Spirit is seeking to do in and through you!

Cf. “Therefore I want you to (gnosis) understand”

1 Cor 12:3

Discerning the Spiritual - or that which is of the Holy Spirit

Spirituality that is not rooted in knowledge/ truth (God’s word) is an illusion/false

1.

An illusion/false

As a member of the Godhead the Holy Spirit is the source of Truth

An illusion of spirituality, false - Truth is found in the Person of the Holy Spirit

John 15:26

1 John

God’s revealed word

God’s revealed word (scripture) bears witness about Christ and so does the Holy Spirit; therefore, anything the Holy Spirit is saying/doing will be consistent with his word!

Spirituality that is not rooted in knowledge/ truth (God’s word) is subjective

2. Subjective

subjective- subject to the whims of each individual

3. Dangerous

dangerous and destructive

endangers the spiritual health of the individual

to the growth of the indiviual

if spread or development into a movement - like a disease it can infect entire congregations, communities, and societies

4. Is exactly what satan wants

He is a:

He is a:

Master of deception!

Master counterfeiter!

2 Cor 11:13-15

Of Righteousness

Performing Sign & Wonders

Performing Sign & Wonders

If you are going to minister you must concern yourself with distinguishing that which is born of the Spirit and that which is not.

“It only takes one bad apple to spoil the barrel”: Our adversary the devil, will allow as little or as much truth as he wants but with just enough lie or deception to steer you away from Christ, or the direction (belief or practice) that God wants you to go.

Identifying

That which is Spiritual (of the Holy Spirit) will point to Jesus and be consistent with the truth of God’s written revealed word.

A Profound Distinction

“Pagans…led”

Because of their background in pagan worship services (v.

2), some Corinthians may have had concerns about speech gifts empowered by the Holy Spirit in the church.

The practice of ecstasy, considered to be the highest expression of religious experience, involved supposed supernatural interaction with a deity, induced through frenzied hypnotic chants and ceremonies.

The practice frequently included drunkenness (cf.

Eph 5:18) and sexual orgies, to which the devotees willfully yielded themselves to be led into gross sin.

Possibly impostors, but more likely “uninformed” believers were mixing pagan practices into the church

A Living God

“Mute Idols” - voiceless, inanimate, dead.

The God of the bible is a living God

29 references to the “living God”

the church was created by the “Spirit of the Living God”

Paul calls on the Corinthians to recall that their conversion from pagans worshipping mute idols to Christ was a spiritual work of the Spirit of the Living God!

A Spiritual Work

1 Cor 12:3-

To genuinely say/confess Jesus as Lord…Christ, the Son of the living God” can only be accomplished by the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit!

Now that Paul has made a clear distinction between the Spiritual and Pagan, he is able to reveal to the Corinthians the great diversity of gifts in the church yet unified by one Spirit

Diversity within Unity

1 Cor 12:4-

“Same Spirit....Same Lord…Same God” - reference to the trinity.

The Nature of the Gifts

Empowered by God

They’re not merely natural talents, skills, or abilities

You can’t take some christian version of a personality profile test

The Purpose of the Gifts

:7

Not to bedazzle or impress!

Not self-glorification!

Not status!