The Believer's Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:1–31 ESV

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. 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. 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. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:1-31

Sermon Title: The Believer’s Gifts

           While we have finished our series through the book of Colossians, we’re going to continue this week and next under the umbrella of our “Christ and the Believer” series. For those of you who enjoy sports, you think about a game going into overtime or extra innings because the game wasn’t finished in regulation. That’s kind of where we’re at. These two sermons are going to build on what we’ve been hearing, especially being united with Christ and putting on a spiritual uniform.

           There’s a reason why we’re doing this. This year, I’ve been opening our Council meetings—that’s our elders and deacons—with a devotional published through our denomination regarding “Church Health.” The health of a congregation is not just based on the numbers of attendees on a Sunday and a never-ending growth of those numbers, but there are a variety of indicators. Some of the indicators in the devotional are the centrality of God’s Word, loving relationships, transforming worship, servant leadership, generous stewardship. We believe in a number of these areas, we—Baldwin Christian Reformed Church—have pretty good health.

But we know and can admit we have weaknesses, just like any person and any body of people. One of the devotional’s discussion starters a couple months ago was this question: “Which is the greater danger in the church today: people wanting to be great leaders or people not wanting to be leaders at all?” How we took that question is in our local church, do we find more people forcing their way into leadership positions throughout the church out of pride or lust for power or do we struggle to find people who are willing and eager to serve? As a Council, we see the second of those options: we struggle to find people willing and eager to serve in leadership and in various capacities in our church. By no means are we the only church that struggles with this. A lot of churches, both in and beyond the CRC, struggle to find leaders and helpers for their ministries.

That said, as we do this check-up of ourselves, we’re hoping that in recognizing weaknesses or flaws or struggles, that we can work on these. So, how do you get good or fitting leaders and helpers in a church? At least part of the answer is you look for spiritual gifts and how you can use them and encourage others to use theirs. 1 Corinthians 12 is one of a few passages in the New Testament that talk about gifts that believers have.

A major nudge for me to preach on this also came from a series of messages from Alistair Begg. Some of you know of and enjoy listening to him. Alistair is a pastor in Cleveland, Ohio, but originally from Scotland—so he has a very recognizable voice, and the program “Truth For Life” puts his messages out on radio and podcasts. As Christie and I were driving through Indiana and Michigan earlier this summer, part of a series that he did on spiritual gifts, based on 1 Corinthians 12, was being aired. I don’t know if she remembers, but I got excited and thought that’s what our church needs to hear. I’m tempted more than I ever have been to just play his messages, but those were for the church he serves. There are other aspects that we can focus on for our context. I’ll probably share links in our midweek update, if you would like to listen to his messages, but I trust God’s Spirit has been at work through all this for how we get here this morning.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I want you to imagine a Christmas party, or maybe it’s a birthday party for multiple people or some other event where gifts were passed out for more than one person. For me, the image that comes to mind is Christmas day at my grandparents’ house as a young boy, and my entire extended family is gathered together, about 20 of us. We’re sitting on couches and chairs around the room or sitting on the floor in the middle. The presents aren’t just under the tree but spread a few feet in each direction. As kids, we exchanged names and each had a toy gift and a clothes gift, the parents’ generation exchanged names and each had a gift, and there were presents to and from grandma and grandpa. Each of the gifts had names on it, who it was from and who it was to be received by. Usually, one or two of us kids were grabbing gifts and bringing them to grandpa or someone else to read who it was for, and then we’d bring it to that person. They opened it, showed it off, and on to the next one until all the presents were gone.

I share that example not just because I enjoy getting and giving gifts and that’s a fond memory, but I share it because it shows a designated, specific gifting. Each of those presents was intended for whoever’s name was on it. It wasn’t one of these deals where you unwrap a plastic wrap ball that’s been filled with different items and whatever comes out, you get. No, whatever your gift was, even when it just became an exchange of gift cards after a while, that was your gift.

           Coming back to 1 Corinthians 12, there are many different directions we could go and matters we could take up. By no means is my message today going to be the perfect and complete answer and explanation for everything going on here. Where we begin, though, is the basics of spiritual gifts. What I mean by that is hopefully by the end of this point, we’ll have answered all these questions: Who gives them? Who are they given to? Who has what gifts? What is the Greek word “chareesma”? What are the biblical spiritual gifts? And what are the gifts for?

What the apostle Paul laid out for the Corinthian believers is an understanding that God, the only God, gives his people, who he knows, gifts that are unique to them. When we look at the universal and historic church, made up of all Christians of all times, not every individual has or possesses the same gifts. So, too, when we look at one congregation, like our own, we don’t all have the same gifts. The Holy Spirit of God has gifted each believer something particular that they can contribute to the rest of the church.

There is debate over what the gifts exactly are or what they entail or if certain ones are still given and present in the church—I’m not getting into that today. But it seems rather clear from verses 4 through 6 and verse 11 that all believers have been given at least one gift by God. “There are different kinds of gifts…different kinds of service…different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men…All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” My gifts as an individual and a pastor weren’t given to me just because I went through an ordination process. My gifts weren’t given by Western and Calvin Theological Seminaries. My gifts and all of our gifts originate from God.  

We want to get to this question of what the biblical spiritual gifts are, but before we can deal with that, there’s a Greek word that we should be aware. It shows up five times in this chapter, as well as in two of the other spiritual gift passages—Romans 12 and 1 Peter 4, and that Greek word is chareesma. I think you can hear a word that’s been passed down, which we would say in English, “charisma.” When we read 1 Corinthians 12 verses 4, 9, 28, 30, and 31 that there are gifts, the Greek word being translated is chareesma. In our day, you might hear some churches or believers claiming to exercise more supernatural gifts and they get called, “charismatic gifts” or those are “charismatic churches,” but to go to the source: chareesma is simply a gift.

Let’s look at the biblical gifts then. Whether for a time in history or for all of time, God can give believers the spiritual gifts of wisdom, knowledge, faith, gifts of healing and the calling of a healer, miraculous powers and the calling of a miracle worker, prophecy and the calling of a prophet, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in tongues and the calling of one who does that, interpreting tongues and the calling an interpreter. In terms of other spiritual gift callings, we read the gifting of an apostle, a teacher, helping others, and administration. Those are all spiritual gifts that be given to and received by believers. These are gifts we can be equipped with by God for use in his church and accompanying our faith. The biblical list doesn’t stop there, though. If we go to Romans 12 verses 3 through 8, we find added to the list, the spiritual gifts of serving, encouraging, contributing to the needs of others, leadership, showing mercy. Ephesians 4 verses 11 through 13 adds the callings of an evangelist and a pastor. 1 Peter 4 echoes callings from these passages.

These are gifts from God. They are not natural talents. They are not just interests. They are skills and contributions to the church of Jesus Christ, which our Lord has given to each of us as part of his body. The last piece of establishing the basics here is what we read in verse 7, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” It is for the benefit of, the profiting of, the church. They’re for use with the whole body as we also heard that imagery. We’re not to read these passages and decide for ourselves or take any number of spiritual gift surveys to determine what our gift or gifts are and then decide to lock them behind closed doors, to keep them secret or hidden or only for our benefit. No, God’s word calls us to use them in service to one another, to build up, to help in discipleship and in worship and ultimately for the glory of God.  

These are the basics of spiritual gifts that all Christians can be on the same page about. They are from God to all believers, unique, distinct, specific to them. They are a “chareesma,” a gift that we have not earned or bought ourselves. There are many gifts that have been given, each gift and person gifted is valuable according to the purpose of God. These gifts are to be used to the glory of God and for the benefit of his body, the church.

How do we take this into our church, our life as part of the body of Christ together? You and I can look at the landscape of churches that exist today and find great variety. There are congregations of a dozen people or even less that gather and worship and operate where once there were hundreds of people. There are also massive congregations, megachurches with thousands, even ten thousands of people, gathering and engaging the truth of God and his gift of salvation. There are churches like ours that have a long history, and have seen both growth and decline in membership and wonder what the future looks like. Other churches are just starting out, some with great enthusiasm, others with fear over whether they’ll make it. There are house churches and other ways that believers associate that are different from the traditional church that we’re used to.

I bring those situations up not to say that one way of church is absolutely correct or that churches of a certain size are doing things right and everyone else must be wrong. But Paul writes here and elsewhere about the church as “the body.” He calls it, “A unit…made up of many parts,” all real parts are part of the body and not cast off. All parts are needed, and according to verse 18, “…In fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be…” and they need each other. In his church, God has given all the parts, all the gifts that are necessary to be the body.

To go back to what I was saying in the introduction, Council’s recognition—and I’m not trying to put myself or my fellow officebearers in hot water—but we recognize there are necessary, good, and beneficial parts of the ministry here at Baldwin CRC that we believe God has called us to, which are lacking people willing to lead and serve. Yet we as Council don’t believe we’re lacking people with the spiritual gifts to lead and help in these ministries. We trust that God’s congregation here at Baldwin CRC is still a part of this body that God has given all the parts for.

If that is true, then we need each other to step up and share in the ministry. We can’t only consume, but we must contribute with what God has gifted us. There may be things from the past that need to be dealt with. There may be gifts that have to be shaped and formed and matured, but unless we’re willing to offer our gifts for God and for the benefit of one another, we will still be lacking. If you are someone who feels you are using your gifts well, I encourage you to check yourself. Maybe there is something else you can do, another way you can contribute, but maybe you’ll conclude you’re using your gifts exactly how God wants you to. Thank you for that!

But there are others of us who have gifts that are not being offered or not being utilized. Our God-given gifts are so to speak a gift, a present, that has our name on it, but we’re leaving it sit wrapped under the Christmas tree. We know that if we open it, we’ll have to, we’ll be expected to utilize it. That may challenge us. It may require a change in how we live our lives, our routines, all the things we’re comfortable with and enjoy. I know some of us probably say we’re using our gifts behind the scenes, outside of our church’s formal ministries. That’s great, but as members who have covenanted to this body, we should contribute here as well.

Maybe we used to give a lot to the church in terms of time and energy and now we want to relax. We want to see others use their gifts instead of always feeling like we were the one. With that, maybe our bodies, our minds, our age and youthfulness are not what they once were. That doesn’t mean we should be completely inactive in using our gifts. Brothers and sisters, remember that our commitment to Christ and his church—which is part of our faith—involves us being equipped by God, trusting his equipping, and stewarding our gifts well.

The goal of this message is not to guilt any of us into using our gifts. I don’t want you to walk away this morning and contact someone this week to tell them pastor’s sermon made me feel bad. Because I feel bad, I guess I’ll help out with such-and-such a position or ministry. My prayer and what I believe Paul wrote to these believers is that they and we might be reminded and wowed that God would even consider equipping us for his service. God can use people who have doubted themselves, who thought themselves completely incapable of something, who viewed themselves as having too much sin or problems in their past—he can use all his redeemed to bear fruit.

Will each of us trust him to use us, to fulfill any calling that he may have appointed us for? Will we trust that he will fill us up to carry on this small part of his church, that he will bring in people or give new gifts when those who previously held certain gifts are gone? Our God is powerful. Our God does not make mistakes. Our God knows us and knows his church, and he sustains it. Let us gladly serve him as he pours out abundant blessings. Amen.