6122004 Text: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 I need your...

6/12/2004

Text: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

I need your help this morning. I need you to give me some examples of ways people demonstrate snobbishness, superior attitude, a sense of elitism, a holier than thou attitude, and I am better than you are. Is this clear? I do not want people to be named!!! I want examples that you have either experienced yourself or have witnessed.

In college I had an experience at a friend’s church. I went to his home in Florida for the Christmas holiday. We went a service at his church. His church was a charismatic church. During the service the pastor held an alter call for people to come forward to receive the gift of tongues. Let’s just say it was interesting. Then we went to the pastor’s or one of the members house. I had a very strange feeling about this house. When I went through the door the atmosphere changed. I felt uncomfortable. While there they decided to lay hands on people and ask God to give them his Spirit. No one was exempt from this. They laid hands on me and prayed and nothing happened, except for the falling backwards and someone catching me. People were excited, and a woman who according to the people there had never played a piano before started to play and she was pretty good. Well then things got even more interesting. The pastor came to me and told me that I had brought Satan in with me. That I needed to repent and let the Spirit of God come into me. I just looked at him and did not say a word. What could I say? My friend decided it was time to leave and I did not argue. What was interesting was this, when I went through the front door and was outside the feeling of discomfort left. To this day I know that what I experienced within that house was not the Spirit of God but the Spirit of Satan. These people were obsessed with the gift of tongues and the miraculous gifts. They taught that if a person did not have the “gift of tongues” then they where not truly born of God.

To understand the issue of spiritual gifts I need to give you a little background as to what was happening in Corinth. The church at Corinth was a troubled church. They were filled with pride, arrogance, spreading of rumors and division. They were selfish, spiritually immature and there was a problem with sexual immorality.

The Corinthians were coming out of a pagan background. Much of their religious life was based in the Greek mystery religions in which spiritual experiences were the norm. Many of them were accustomed to being moved by some kind of supernatural or demonic force in their worship rites. These experiences included trances, spirit of ecstasy, miraculous healings and religious prostitution (1,000 priestess in the cult of Aphrodite). They brought this mindset with them into the church at Corinth.

Some believed that certain spiritual signs were evidence of a higher spiritual state; like if you do not have this experience or gift then you are inferior to me. Apparently the gift that “proved a higher spiritual state was speaking in tongues and this issue was causing turmoil within the fellowship. Some who spoke in tongues felt they were special or developed an attitude of elitism over their ability to speak in tongues.

This is why Paul addresses the issue of spiritual gifts in chapters 12-14 of 1 Corinthians. He is addressing the idea that tongues were a sign of having the highest or best gift. This is why he tells the Corinthians starting in verse 4; 4 Now there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but it is the same Holy Spirit who is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service in the church, but it is the same Lord we are serving. 6 There are different ways God works in our lives, but it is the same God who does the work through all of us. 7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church.

Notice that Paul says that there are different kinds of gifts, different kinds of service and different ways that God works in the lives of his people. Nothing is said about one gift being better than another. Each gift is given by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of serving the Lord and accomplishing the work of God.

Every follower of Christ is gifted. The gifts come in all sorts and sizes. Two people may have the same spiritual gift but it will look different in the way it is used. We are all gifted for the common good of the body of Christ. The gifts are given to each person by the Holy Spirit for use in building up the church. The gifts are to be used in serving one another and the community in which the church is located.

So, what are spiritual gifts anyway? The Quest Study Bible defines spiritual gifts this way. Spiritual gifts are called spiritual because they come from the Spirit of God. John Piper defines spiritual gifts this way; A Spiritual gift is an ability given by the Holy Spirit to express our faith effectively (in word or deed) for the strengthening of someone else’s faith.

Spiritual gifts are just that, gifts given to the church by God in order to help strengthen one another in the faith and to carry out God’s kingdom work in this world. “Spiritual gifts owe nothing to human effort” (Chrysostom) “They are visible signs that the grace of the Holy Spirit is at work in the faithful”. (Theodoret of Cyr)

The Holy Spirit decides what gifts are necessary and apportions them for the community of faith. A person knowing their spiritual gift does not make them more mature or part of the spiritual elite. The gifts are gifts of God’s grace; they are not rewards for or indicators of spiritual maturity. It is vital that we understand this. If we do not then we will commit the same sin that the Corinthians did (and my friend’s church) by developing a spiritual elitism that says if you do not have my spiritual gift then you are somehow inferior to me. We must always be careful that we do not develop spiritual pride and judge people based off our giftedness.

“God’s aim in giving gifts and in giving us the faith to exercise them is that his glory might be displayed.” (Piper) If we use our gifts properly then we will understand that we are interdependent upon one another and that the only way we will grow and be balanced in the body of Christ is by each person discovering and using their gifts to serve one another and then serve the community.

Next week we will look at the gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 and find out how they are to be used. Then we look at additional gifts listed in Romans 12 and 1 Peter 4. For this morning let us review what we need to understand about spiritual gifts:

The Holy Spirit is sovereign in distributing the gifts. We do not seek them or ask for them. They are given according to how God desires to use us in his church.
The credit for these gifts belongs solely to the Spirit. We are not to boast about what we have or think we are somehow more special because of the gift or gifts we have been given.
No single person has all the gifts. Some may have one some may have more than one. Some gifts may be given temporarily.
The Spirit works in every Christian in the community of faith. We are to find our gift and use it for the good of the body of Christ.
The Spirit ensures that there will be a diversity of gifts. How many and what that diversity will be is up to God. Not every church will have all of the gifts present.

It is important that we understand that we are gifted by God. He has given to each of us one or more gifts to be used to bring glory and honor to him. Ignoring or failing to use our gift means we are rejecting our place in God’s kingdom work and it can result in our gift being taken from us. Understanding the biblical teaching of spiritual gifts can help churches discover what they are called to do and to give them a sense of purpose and mission within their community in which they serve. Discovering our spiritual gifts can help Christians to know their place of service in the body of Christ and can spare people a lot of guilt for not necessarily doing what others think we should do. Knowing our gift can give us freedom to serve each other and to serve God.