The Corinthian Correspondence, Part 22: 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11; "Approaching the Lord with Power: Spiritual Gifts"

The Corinthian Correspondence, Part 22; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; "Approaching God With Power: Spiritual Gifts" Yesterday was Independence Day. Fourth of July. The day we celebrate our independence from the tyrannical government that held us down. Today, I'm afraid though, that after 244 years of attempting to live out what some call the American Experiment, we have made another declaration of independence from another government: God's. We forget, or deliberately ignore, the unalterable spiritual fact of life, that God is the ruler-and not just of Christians. He is the only sovereign of the universe. This year, 2020 we have seen how panicked we can get, with the corona virus issue and the latest iteration of intense racial tension coming at us in rapid fire succession to name just two things. To make things worse, there are others if they had their way, and quite frankly are trying their best to make it happen, to turn our representative republic into a socialistic form of government and society. And regardless of what one might think of Rush Limbaugh, he spoke truth about socialism--that it has failed every time it has been tried. So I ask, why would we want to go there? Just to try it? What happens to us after it fails? We have experienced many ills in our country over the years, no doubt about that. But facts are stubborn things. There is a bedrock foundation upon which our country was founded: The principles in the Judeo-Christian system of ethics. The Supreme Court ruled that we are a Christian nation 3 times in our history. Not that we are all Christians. Or that a person must be a Christian to hold office. But in Supreme Court Justice Brewer's words in the 1800s: "The US is most justly called a Christian nation because Christianity--not Islam, not secularism, not raw power or economics--has so largely shaped and molded it." There's also no denying that our monuments and government buildings show a fundamental tie to the bedrock foundation of Christianity. Even the charters of many of our states, to include all 3 Charters of Virginia, have stated that the reason for their--our--existence is to propagate the Christian gospel. We used to sing the prayer, "America. America. God shed his grace on thee. And crown thy good with brotherhood. From sea to shining sea." Today, these words ring increasingly hollow. How we need a revival in our country. How we need the Holy Spirit to bring his conviction of our sin upon our hearts where we are brought to our knees in repentance of sin, and wholeheartedly turn back to the Lord. King David wrote this inspired verse of Scripture millennia ago in Psalm 33:12: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." In the most serious way I can bring this, I am compelled to tell us: God does not play with sin. He is eternally deadly serious when it comes to sin in all its manifestations. Though he loves sinners, enough to send his Son, the Lord Jesus to the cross, just as wonderfully, just as powerfully, God is holy. In his absolute perfection he will judge sin wherever he finds it-it's just a matter of his timing. When it's all said and done, all sin will be dealt with. In holiness. In righteousness. In perfect justice. It is my prayer that all of us who call Grace United their home, and indeed every person in the body of Christ, that when we all stand before him on evaluation day, we will hear "well done." Such is my tribute and challenge to all of us who call ourselves Americans. I just mentioned a moment ago how we need the Holy Spirit to bring the full weight of his conviction of sin to bear on our hearts. I also said that we have done a most horrific job in declaring our independence from the only true and living God and our need to repent before it is eternally too late. But I want us to turn the corner now. Happily, those of us who know Christ, and whom Christ knows, have run to him for shelter, shielding us from the wrath to come. Like Pilgrim, we have left the City of Destruction and have cried out, "Life! Life! Eternal Life!" We have gone through the wicket gate--Evangelist pointed this out. We arrived at the cross of Jesus--and the heavy load of sin rolled off our back as we declared Jesus is Lord, and that he is our sin bearer. Now we are free! Now we are on our way to the Celestial City. In our 21st Century American culture we repeat the mantra far too often, "Just Jesus and me! Just Jesus and me!" "On my way to heaven!" Well, guess what? It is not just Jesus and me. It is not just Jesus and you. It is Jesus and us. Together. Corporately. Today, July 5, 2020, how we need to declare not only our dependence on the Lord for salvation, and indeed eternal life, we are also to declare our interdependence on one another. How we need one another in the body of Christ, particularly at Grace United. And for all of you listening in that cannot be part of Grace United, you need to be part of your local church. See, when God saved us, he placed us in a world-wide, down-through-the-ages group of people called by various names. He placed us in the church--which means "called out ones"--called out of the world and its ways, and into the kingdom of God. Paul in writing to the Colossians made this bold statement about what God has done for us. Though we were in the kingdom of darkness, he delivered us from it and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We now live in the kingdom of God's dear son. And he treats us as his children! And among many other word pictures describing this group, the one which is most vivid is that of a living, breathing, moving body, with many parts. Christ has placed all of us into his body, of which he is the head. It's been well said that in this world that we are the hands and feet of Jesus. We are visible reminders to the world that there is a God with whom we all have to do. And as we Christians live as the Lord would have us live, some of those living outside the body of Christ, in the domain of darkness will want to come into the body of Christ; they will want to live in Christ's kingdom. We are in the middle of our mini-series in 1 Corinthians: "Approaching the Lord," discovering how to offer him worship he will accept. Our desire is that we will hear when we stand before him that he accepted our worship. As we know there were times in the past where God actually told his people through his prophets that he rejected their worship meetings and practices. As a son of God and your pastor, the very last thing I want to hear him say to me is, "Glenn on July 5, 2020 I did not accept your worship." What about you? Today, we are going to dive into a topic that ought to bring the body of Christ together. It ought to make us marvel, slack-jawed at God's presence among us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. But just like in Paul's day in the 1st Century, and down through the centuries to our day, the devil and our own hearts have used the dynamic of spiritual gifts to divide the body of Christ in devastating ways. But this is just the opposite of what God by his spirit intended for spiritual gifts to do. Today, our passage is 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. This week we are going to lay a foundation of 3 parts as we talk about how the Holy Spirit works among us through this thing called spiritual gifts in the local church. The first part of our foundation is, exactly what a Christian's relationship is to the Holy Spirit in vv.1-3. The second part of our foundation is the source of spiritual gifts in the body of Christ, in vv.4-7. And in vv.8-11 we will see the dynamic of the Holy Spirit working through his gifts in the church. 1 Corinthians 12:1-3: Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit. Thus begins yet another topic Paul needs to address regarding their, once again, disunity in the church. It is amazing to me that things really have not changed much in the 2,000 years the church has been around. The Corinthians experienced divisions between themselves over the spiritual gifts then. It is the same today. On one hand, how many churches do you know about that call themselves charismatic, Pentecostal-"where we are free to celebrate Jesus?" On the other hand, how many churches say almost with a certain smugness, "We are non-Charismatic," not given to emotionalism? So as he does with so many of the other issues in the Corinthian church, Paul attacks disunity, and this time it is over spiritual gifts. Remember how in the very beginning of this letter that Paul chided the Corinthians for splitting into different groups? We called them Paulites, Apollosites, Cephasites and the Christites. We said that the Christites were the group that was the most mystical--they bragged about their spirituality. While those who followed spiritual leaders of Paul, Apollos and Cephas, or Peter, these guys sought Christ through experiences. And they bragged on their spiritual giftedness. They had in their home churches a rockin' good time. Ecstatic utterances, interpretations, healings, and all kinds of stuff went on there. It was a happenin place to be! To be sure the other house churches experienced some of the supernatural things. But the Christites seemingly cornered the market! And tended to look down their hyperspiritual noses at others who did not have the uberexpressive experiences. Enter Paul where he set the record straight. He tells them in no uncertain term: "Hey guys, all of you at one time or another were held captive to the idols of the pagan religions. They could not communicate. They were lifeless. But now, all of you who are Christians have something in common. None of you say, "Jesus be cursed" and all of you say, with deep conviction, "Jesus is Lord." In other words, Paul is telling every last Corinthian believer, "the Holy Spirit lives in each of you. So, Christites, stop promoting your experiences. You have some cool experiences. But everybody in the church has a common bond, and that bond is a profound change on the inside." Here, Paul says, is the bottom line. Every person who is in the body of Christ literally has received a gift: the Holy Spirit! He enables every true Christian to make the same confession: "Jesus is Lord." It was this from-the-heart statement that described a follower of Jesus from one who was not. As one learned author put it: "Jesus is Lord" was the one audible profession of faith which Paul requires for a would-be Christian, the only and sufficient condition for participating in salvation", as Paul writes in Romans 10:9-10: if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Remember when Paul entered Corinth. He knew the gospel would not be accepted. He was convinced that the gospel was moronic to the gentiles and a thing to be completely rejected by the Jews. But Paul preached. And the Holy Spirit began to work. And before Paul left Corinth 18 months later, many were declaring "Jesus is Lord." This profound change came about because the Holy Spirit did a profound work in their heart. And as an aside, let me highlight something we all know but we need reminding of. When we say "Jesus is Lord", that means "Jesus calls all the shots in my life." I am literally at his feet. I have experienced a change in the deepest recesses of my soul that says, "yes" to his ways. And when Jesus tells me anything, whether a truth statement, a command, whatever, of course from his word, we say, "Yes, Lord." Tragically, not all the time. But spiritual maturity means that as time goes on, we say "yes"--and actually follow through--more often than we say, "no." We remember what Jesus said to those who were merely playing around regarding loyalty to him. He said in Luke 6:46, "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you? That's the demand the Lord places on his disciples. Jesus is not looking for nor does he desire converts. He's looking for disciples. When a person says, "Jesus is Lord" there will be some -- not perfect -- change in the heart leading toward Christlikeness. This is how the Christian and others know that the Holy Spirit lives in his or her life-that he or she is part of the body of Christ. So, Paul rebukes those who tried to place themselves a little higher on the spiritual totem pole than other believers because they had a special spiritual experience that others did not: "All of you are Charismatic" Paul says. "All of you are gifted." That means, "Christites--chill out! The Holy Spirit lives in you just as vibrantly as he lives in all who call Jesus Lord." But how often today do we see advertisements of different people traveling all over, proclaiming their special anointing-their spiritual giftedness. Or even of people saying things like, one has to speak in tongues, for after all that is evidence of salvation. If Paul were here, he would say, "Chill out!" The evidence of salvation is showing and telling, "Jesus is Lord," not whether you can speak in an ecstatic utterance or heal someone. So, what is the relationship of the Christian to the Holy Spirit? He works the profound change in their life. "Jesus is Lord" is the work that the Lord began and the disciple lives out for the rest of his or her days. The second part of our foundation is the source and purpose of spiritual gifts in the body of Christ, in vv.4-7: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Notice how profound of a statement this is: the Spirit giving the gifts. The Lord affording opportunities for service. God the Father empowering the gifts given out to every last person in Christ's body. Why did Paul say that? Precisely because the blessed Trinity is involved in the actual life of the church. This is true unity in diversity. As we know The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is not the Son or the Father. But all Three are One God. In the same way, there is unity in diversity in God's distribution of the gifts. Unity because the source of the spiritual manifestation is God. And diversity because of the variety of gifts given to all Christians. Notice as well, there is not one person more favored than another. The very word gift has its source in "something graciously given"-literally it is a gift of grace. Notice something else as well in v.7: "the manifestation" of the Spirit. Not multiple manifestations. In other words, there is equal distribution as it were, of the manifestation. The point here is that not only is there room for every person in whom the Spirit dwells in the church as we all serve one another, when a brother or sister is not in his or her place, there is a hole. On any sports team, there are a certain number of players on the field. On the court. What happens when all of a sudden 2 players from the basketball team are missing and no one to replace them? Even if one of the 3 remaining players is the star? Who now has the advantage? I understand that every analogy breaks down. And the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is infinitely more capable of manifesting himself without us. With that said, though when God's people are missing in the fellowship, on at least one level, there is a weakness. A vulnerability. Because no one is like anybody else. The manifestation of the Spirit works through each one of us uniquely. All of us contribute to the body. In other words, even those who fancy them themselves as the spiritual superstars cannot do things alone. They have the manifestation of the Spirit. You have the manifestation of the Spirit. I have the manifestation of the Spirit. And this is true here at Grace United. There have been several times over the years-doesn't that sound good-over the years-that we have been together as a church-that I have been out for various reasons. I remember one time that I was suddenly out and could not make it for a Sunday because I got sick the night before. What happened on that Sunday? Nothing changed. The Lord still worked. Everybody stepped forward and helped and did not miss a beat. We were not playing at full strength. But the job got done. So the point here is 2-fold: no one is indispensible. And everyone is needed. Why? Because the one who distributes the gifts, creates opportunities for service and empowers the working of the gifts to produce the manifestation in each one is God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He does the work. But he works through us individually. And the more avenues he has to work through, the more his glory shines. It's like a cracked pot with a bright light on the inside. A few cracks will yield a little light. But when there are many cracks, many rays of light escape. Consider the times when we assemble as each one of us being one crack in the pot. The more cracks, the brighter the light shines. But why is the manifestation given to each Christian in the congregation? It is for the common good equally. The manifestation is not given to anybody as a means to say, "look at how blessed I am!" When each of us shows the manifestation of the Spirit it is the Lord who works through all of us, and all of us are built up. And when we are all built up, what does that contribute to? Unity. Again, remember why Paul addressed this. There were some who were beating their spiritual chest and using their manifestation as a means to say, "look at me!" So, foundation part 1: "Jesus is Lord" in the life of Christian and this is the tell-tale sign of salvation. The Lord begins the work and the disciple lives out his or her discipleship for the rest of his or her days, til they see Jesus. Foundation part 2: The source of spiritual gifts given to the body of Christ is God himself: Father, Son and Spirit. He has given the manifestation to each disciple for the common good-that his glory might shine in the church. Foundation part 3 is found in vv.8-11, where we will see the dynamic of the Holy Spirit working through his gifts in the church. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. A word of wisdom. Knowledge. Faith. Healing. Miracles. Prophecy. Discerning of spirits. Speaking in tongues. Interpretation of tongues. Quite a list. Time fails us to discuss each in detail. And we can get lost in the detail here if we are not careful anyway. But let me just list a brief common definition for each one. A "message of wisdom": Supernatural ability to give guidance for dealing with challenging circumstances in the life of a Christian. Knowledge: Supernatural insights regarding the Scripture. Faith: Supernatural confidence in God's saving power and presence that he will glorify his name in difficult circumstances. Healing: A supernatural privilege of being the recipient or the channel of miraculous healing. Miracles: A supernatural privilege of serving as a channel to display God's special powers to show who he is in extraordinary circumstances. Prophecy: Supernatural ability to communicate God's message directly related to the special needs and issues of his people. Discerning of spirits: A supernatural ability to know the origin of a prophetic message-whether divine or evil source. Speaking in tongues: A supernatural ability speak in unlearned human languages. Interpretation of tongues: A supernatural ability to translate or interpret what was said through the gift of tongues. Again. Quite the list. But this list begs the question: why have we not experienced or rarely experience these manifestations in corporate worship? I would venture to guess that same is true for the vast majority of churches in our country. Why not them? The simple but seemingly disappointing answer is found in v.11: the Spirit of God apportions individually as he wills. In other words, it is up to the Spirit of God as to who gets which manifestation. By the way, I found it interesting that in at least 1 source the author tells the reader that he doubted that the Christians in Corinth experienced all these manifestations. The reasoning he gave is probably because the Corinthians so highly valued speaking in tongues, that he was sort of "throwing in there" manifestations that the Corinthians did not experience to sort of humble them. Kind of like, "so, Christites, you think you have such a powerful manifestation of a gift; you haven't seen anything til you experience actual miracles." Just conjecture, I understand. But as we have seen several times in this letter so far, Paul dishes out a little sarcasm from time to time - to highlight absurdity with absurdity to make a point. Sort of like Jesus, when he spoke hyperbole, like gouging out eyes or chopping off hands to keep one from sinning. But the bottom line for the why's and wherefores of the Spirit's distribution of his gifts can be summed up this way: The Spirit of God decides what is best for a congregation's needs. The manifestations that are not needed are not distributed. It seems though that Paul has placed speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues at the bottom of the list perhaps to knock down the high importance the Christite group probably placed on this manifestation. And if you have read 1 Corinthians, you know what is coming. In chapter 14, Paul spends the entire chapter, 40 verses as we have it outlined in our Bibles, dealing with this manifestation. Before I seek to apply this passage to our lives today and how it relates to our corporate worship, let me put a point on this-something we would do well to never forget when it comes to any spiritual gift: spiritual gifts can be counterfeited. And much damage to the church can result if we are not careful. This calls for wisdom and understanding. Paul prayed for the Philippians in Philippians 1:9-11, that their love would abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that they may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. I'll never forget a story that was told to Kitty and me when we were in Denver right after we were married. We talked to a young man who hated the church. He was also fluent in Russian. One day, he walked into a church, and spoke Russian and no one knew what language it was. When he finished "speaking in tongues" someone interpreted it and his interpretation was a lot of encouragement. But the one speaking Russian was enraged. "Here's what I said", he told them. It was actually many curses in Russian. But the church thought he was speaking in tongues. The point here is that what we call spiritual manifestations can be misunderstood. They can be manipulated. They can even come from evil spirits. But as we will see in a couple of weeks when we go through chapter 13, though spiritual gifts can be counterfeited, spiritual fruit cannot. So, what do we do with this message today? First, as Christians, we are all charismatics-we are all gifted with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables us to say and live out the earliest Christian statement of faith: "Jesus is Lord." If the Holy Spirit lives in you, let the world know that Jesus is indeed your Lord. Second, let's get really practical here on Sunday mornings. When we come together it is not about just hearing a sermon, good, bad or otherwise. It is offering the Lord worship--which has its expression by how we sing, pray, listen, give of our offering, but also how we reach to another brother or sister and deepen our relationship with him or her. As we learned today, the Spirit has given you a spiritual manifestation waiting to be expressed! Express it! We do things during the worship service that are standard for us--open worship, prayer, singing, hopefully actively listening to the Lord through the delivery of the message, giving. But what about you personally during the service as in offering a word of praise? What about living with the realization as we said a couple of weeks ago, that the angels are here observing how we worship the Lord corporately? Or what about deliberately pouring yourself out in prayer or abandoning yourself when you sing? Or just as important, preparing yourself when you come here that you will endeavor jump in and meet a need. It could be folding bulletins, operating the tech table, helping others. What about getting out of your comfort zone and speaking to others and becoming curious of your neighbor that you don't know much about--and getting to know him or her? Or what about engaging in prayer for that person either before or after the service? Or when you detect there might be a need you can meet as you listen to them, and actually meeting that need? Let's remember that no gift is more important than another. Each of us is unique. Because of our uniqueness, the manifestation of the Spirit will be unique through each of us. Each of us needs to "let the Spirit out" so to speak and serve one another. Though I have a teaching gift that is most prominent here, that does not mean that you don't have a teaching gift. As Christians we all are to obey the Great Commission the Lord gave us, by teaching others the ways of the Lord. Some have hearts who are more tender, more emotionally driven than others, but that does not mean that they are the only ones who weep with those who weep. All of us are commanded to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice. Some have the gift of giving. But what if only those with the "gift" gave? Where would we be? Looking for another place to have corporate worship! Some have the gift of evangelism. They can witness to the neighborhood dog and get them saved! But Paul tells Timothy to "do the work of an evangelist". But Timothy was timid! No matter. Didn't the Lord tell all of us to preach the gospel? We all have the privilege to tell others about Jesus The bottom line is we don't have an excuse to not give ourselves in service to the Lord by serving others. All we need is to make sure our motive reflects something like "I want to show Jesus that I love him by serving you." As we close this message, my challenge to all of us is to consider the words of songwriter Keith Green. He went home to be with Jesus about 40 years ago. Before I quote the lyrics I need to point out that this song is decades old. His usage of "rainbow" is not the way the culture thinks of rainbow nowadays. Here are the lyrics to his song, "When There's Love." Take some time / Make a friend of a stranger / Touch a hand / Just reach out, there's no danger When there's love, mountains move / The blind can see and things improve / Don't be afraid to take the lead / And be the first to plant a seed / And then just watch it grow / Don't you know? Take some time / Tell someone that you love them / Make them feel / There's a rainbow above them When there's love, storms will cease / And those in chains will be released / There's not a thing that love can't do / But it's got to start with me and you / And then just watch it grow / Don't you know? When there's love, you can't lose / You'll always know which road to choose / There's not one thing that love can't do / But it's got to start with me and you / And then just watch it grow / Don't you know?