Sermon Tone Analysis

Follow The Instructions (Lesson 2)

Recap 4:1-7

One Body

One Spirit

One Hope

One Lord

One Faith

One Baptism

One God

Unity doesn’t mean uniformity but diversity.

The great heritage of the faith all Christians share, and having this in common they are responsible to guard the unity of the Spirit.

Our personalities, gifts and tasks are not all alike!

One thing is for sure, All believers have at least one Spiritual gift.

Every believer has at least one spiritual gift (, ).

Spiritual gifts are divine abilities given by God to believers so they can serve within the body of Christ.

These spiritual gifts are given for the common good of the Body of Christ and are to be used for service and to the glory of God.

Every believer has at least one spiritual gift (

,

,

11

).

Spiritual gifts are divine abilities given by God to believers so they can serve within the body of Christ.

These spiritual gifts are given for the common good of the Body of Christ and are to be used for service and to the glory of God.

In God’s wisdom, and to make each dependent on others, God has ordained not uniformity, but an endless variety of gifts for members of the body.

As Calvin puts it, ‘no member of the body of Christ is endowed with such perfection as to be able, without the assistance of others, to supply his own necessities.

In God’s wisdom, and to make each dependent on others, God has ordained not uniformity, but an endless variety of gifts for members of the body.

As John Calvin puts it, ‘no member of the body of Christ is endowed with such perfection as to be able, without the assistance of others, to supply his own necessities.

Grace - The word implies that there is no place for boasting; none has anything other than what he has received unmerited

The grace referred to here is given to believers so they can serve others.

It’s not saving Grace but serving Grace!

No-one has all the gifts; and also it is true that no member of the body is without some spiritual task and spiritual gift for it.

Such grace is given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

These words suggest the Lord’s portioning out, in his wisdom, different kinds of gifts to different members.

No-one has all the gifts; and also it is true that no member of the body is without some spiritual task and spiritual gift for it.

To each—not ministers or leaders alone—such grace is given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

These words suggest the Lord’s portioning out, in his wisdom, different kinds of gifts to different members.

You can handle the gift!

The great heritage of the faith all Christians share, and having this in common they are responsible to guard the unity of the Spirit.

But they may not expect their personalities, their gifts and their tasks to be all alike.

In his wisdom, and to make each dependent on others, God has ordained not uniformity, but an endless variety of gifts for members of the body.

As Calvin puts it, ‘no member of the body of Christ is endowed with such perfection as to be able, without the assistance of others, to supply his own necessities.’

To each of us is given different gifts for the benefit of all.

Paul uses the word grace here in the sense in which we have found it used in 3:2, 7–8: the privilege of a special calling in the service of God.

The word implies that there is no place for boasting; none has anything other than what he has received unmerited (cf. 1 Cor.

4:7).

No-one has all the gifts; and also it is true that no member of the body is without some spiritual task and spiritual gift for it.

To each—not ministers or leaders alone—such grace is given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

These words suggest the Lord’s portioning out, in his wisdom, different kinds of gifts to different members.

Both the words measure and grace are used with the meaning they have here in Romans 12:3–8, while 1 Corinthians 12:4 has the same thought as this when it says that ‘there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit’.

measure (quantity) n. — how much there is or how many there are of something that you can quantify.

Every believer has at least one spiritual gift (, ).

Spiritual gifts are divine abilities given by God to believers so they can serve within the body of Christ.

These spiritual gifts are given for the common good of the Body of Christ and are to be used for service and to the glory of God.

The grace referred to here is the spiritual gifts given to believers so they can serve others.

Every believer has at least one spiritual gift (1 Cor 12:7, 11).

Spiritual gifts are divine abilities given by God to believers so they can serve within the body of Christ.

These spiritual gifts are given for the common good of the Body of Christ and are to be used for service and to the glory of God.

He is, in fact, deliberately qualifying what he has just written about the church’s unity.

Although there is only one body, one faith and one family, this unity is not to be misconstrued as a lifeless or colourless uniformity.

We are not to imagine that every Christian is an exact replica of every other, as if we had all been mass-produced in some celestial factory.

On the contrary, the unity of the church, far from being boringly monotonous, is exciting in its diversity.

This is not just because of our different cultures, temperaments and personalities (which, though true, is not Paul’s point here), but because of the different gifts which Christ distributes for the enrichment of our common life.

The apostle quotes Scripture, , a passage which perhaps as early as this was associated with Pentecost in Jewish liturgy.

Pentecost / Moses & The Holy Spirit

The Psalm could be understood to speak of the truth expressed in : ‘Being … exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this …’.

The ascension of Christ made possible the outpouring of the Spirit (), and so these varied gifts of which he is about to speak in detail.

At this point Paul leads on to a new thought.

‘The measure of Christ’s gift’ is that of the ascended Lord who in the days of his flesh promised such abundant bestowal when he returned to the Father’s presence (John 14:12–14).

To express this the apostle quotes Scripture, Psalm 68:18, a passage which perhaps as early as this was associated with Pentecost in Jewish liturgy, and which could be applied to the triumph and ascension of the Lord followed by the bestowal of spiritual gifts to his church.

In their original setting the words of the Psalm picture the Lord returning in triumph (either to the Jerusalem sanctuary or to heaven itself), after the overthrow of Israel’s enemies.

He has made his enemies captive, and they follow, as it were, in his triumphal procession.

As conqueror he has received gifts that he can bestow.

Like many of the Psalms, this found ready application to the Christ.

He has conquered his enemies, and returned to his Father’s throne in triumph, now to bestow blessings on his people.

In fact his former foes, whom he leads in ‘triumph in Christ’ (2 Cor.

2:14; AV, RV), like Paul himself, are his gifts to his church.

We must note, however, an important change in the words used.

The Hebrew Psalm has words which speak of God ‘receiving gifts among men’.

Paul says he gave gifts to men.

Various explanations have been offered for the difference.

Some see it as an intentional, others as an unintentional, misquotation.

It is significant that the Targum (the Jewish Aramaic paraphrase) on the Psalms, which may involve an interpretation going back into pre-Christian times, speaks of the giving rather than the receiving of gifts, as it has ‘Thou ascendedst up to the firmament, O prophet Moses, thou tookest captives captive, thou didst teach the words of the law, thou gavest them as gifts to the children of men.’

It is also possible that the words in this form were used in an early Christian hymn.

In any case the Psalm could be understood to speak of the truth expressed in Acts 2:33: ‘Being … exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this …’.

The ascension of Christ made possible the outpouring of the Spirit (John 7:39), and so these varied gifts of which he is about to speak in detail.

‘Charismatic’ is not a term which can be accurately applied to any group or movement within the church, since according to the New Testament the whole church is a charismatic community.

It is the body of Christ, every single member of which has a gift (charisma) to exercise or function to perform.

What, then, does this paragraph teach us about charismata or spiritual gifts?

It tells us about their giver, their character and their purpose

Stott, J. R. W. (1979).

God’s new society: the message of Ephesians (p.

156).

Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Verse 7 refers to Christ’s grace in bestowing different gifts.

Although Paul does not here employ the term charismata for ‘gifts’ (as he does in and ), yet clearly it is to these that he is referring.

For ‘grace’ is charis, and ‘gifts’ are charismata.

Moreover, it is very important to understand the difference between them.

‘Saving grace’, the grace which saves sinners, is given to all who believe; but what might be termed ‘service grace’, the grace which equips God’s people to serve, is given in differing degrees according to the measure of Christ’s gift (verse 7).

The unity of the church is due to charis, God’s grace having reconciled us to himself; but the diversity of the church is due to charismata, God’s gifts distributed to church members.

Stott, J. R. W. (1979).

God’s new society: the message of Ephesians (pp.

155–156).

Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press

He has descended and ascended that he might fill all things.