1 Corinthians 12:12-31
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1 Corinthians 12:12-31
1 Corinthians 12:12-31
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant:
2 You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led.
3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.
6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:
8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit,
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit,
10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
Let’s Pray...
In the book we went through previous to this, the book of Romans, The Apostle Paul admonishes the Christians in Rome to not fight, or don’t divide over what he calls doubtful things. He says...
1 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.
A little further down in that same chapter he writes...
19 Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.
The issues that we are discussing over the next few weeks, even though they are Biblical issues…they are subjects that historically have divided churches. In the Calvary Chapel Distinctives, the book that was written to be a field manual for church planting pastors in the early days of our movement, Pastor Chuck wrote...
An important characteristic of Calvary Chapel Fellowships is our desire not to divide God's people over non-essential issues. This is not to say that we do not have strong convictions. When the Bible speaks clearly, we must as well. But on other issues we try to recognize the Scriptural validity of both sides of a debate and avoid excluding or favoring those in one camp over the other.
What is he talking about? It must be politics, or Covid, or Vaccines, maybe...do we root for The Patriots or Tampa Bay? Can a Christian have a glass of wine?, Pastor Chuck must have been talking about non doctrine things right? Let’s read on a bit...
An example of this kind of inclusiveness is found in our approach to the debatable issue concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit. (Come on Pastor Chuck, that doesn’t sound very Calvary Chapel to me! We teach verse by verse, we know this book, and we are the ones that do everything right!) He goes on....We don't take a typical Pentecostal view, nor do we take a typical Baptist view. The minute you set your position one way or the other, you've lost half of your congregation. Why would you want to lose half your congregation? Our desire is to be able to minister to as broad a group of people as possible. The minute we start taking hard-line positions on any of the non-foundational controversial issues, we alienate part of the people. In the essential doctrines of the faith, we must take a firm stand. But in the non-essential areas, we accept that people may have differing views, and we accept these in the spirit of grace. It's important to recognize that we can agree to disagree and still maintain a spirit of unity and love.
I know it’s a stretch for a bunch of stoic Mainers, but can you guys say amen to that?
Pastor Chuck mentions in there that we don’t take a typical Pentecostal view, nor do we take a typical Baptist view, and truth be told Calvary Chapel churches are largely respected for taking a balanced view concerning the Holy Spirit and the Gifts of the Spirit. So much so that we are often descried as being Bapticostal. Too charismatic for the Baptists and too Baptist for the Pentacostals. But a middle of the road position on anything concerning our faith however, is only to be commended if it is a Biblical position, not just a peacekeeping stance.
So like I said last week, as we go through these chapters, we want to look at it, not trying to find our theology in it, or prove what we already believe by what is in the text. But if we were all alone on that nice warm island out in the Pacific Ocean, and we were given a Bible in our native tongue and we just read it, what does it actually say, what does it mean, and what conclusions might we come to, just by simply reading the Bible?
Paul does something here in the rest of chapter 12 where we will be picking up our study this morning, where he builds on what he started back in verse 7...
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:
Paul starts to compare the idea of each one of us Christians being given unique gifts, that all work together for the common good of the church body, Paul breaks that down in an example that we can relate to by comparing the various gifts to the various parts of our bodies and how each of those parts work for the benefit of our whole body. Some pretty obvious examples are our brains. Everything inside of us is connected to our brains. Nothing else works if we separate our heads from our bodies right? How about our hearts? Do you know that your heart beats over 100,00 times every single day or about 35 million times every year? The system that helps support the heart is so incredibly amazing.
There are veins and arteries, capillaries…the biggest artery is your aorta, that thing is almost as big as a garden hose, and some of your capillaries are so small it would take 10 of them to make up the size of a human hair! That system moves your blood through your body the equivalent distance of 12,000 miles every day! That’s Maine to California and back, twice! So the brain and the heart, wicked important right? You know what else I found out was really important this week? Your MCP joint right here at the base of your index finger.
Wednesday night, we got some snow. When I got, it was after dark and I went to hook up my plow to my truck. Now you guys with the new rigs might not get this, but I’ve got one of the old ones. It’s the 10 minute mount, if everything is perfect, jacked up, level on a heated garage floor. I’m out in my driveway, it’s freezing rain, I pull in close, but the plow is twisted and off balance, so I get it close, get out of the truck and get in front of the plow and I’m going to push and lift it into place. Well when I did, that frame with the freezing rain all over it, slipped and when I pushed, my hands went like this like they were supposed to…all except for my index finger which slid under the bar so when I pushed with all that force, my finger went in the opposite direction, and I discovered something I never knew that I had…an MCP joint. And when that tiny member of my body suffered, my whole body suffered with it. Some of you guys that stopped in during the week and laughed at me when you tried to shake my hand and I responded with ....thanks for your understanding...
Yesterday was Christmas I know, but something incredible happened yesterday besides the incarnation…Aaron Rogers, quarterback of the Green Bay Packers (you guys can read ahead if you want while I’m rambling) Aaron Rogers broke Brett Favre’s all time touchdown passing record in franchise history for Green Bay. Incredible athlete, known for being tough....but then someone stepped on his foot and he left the game a little early in the first half, because it aggravated an injury he had to his pinky toe, then they were talking about how he has been working through an injury for a few games now…his pinky toe, the little baby one on the end that can’t even grow a whole toenail! When is the last time you thought about your pinky toe, Aaron Rogers thought about his this morning, I’m sure of it.
We have a funny way of thinking that some parts of our bodies are more important than others. The pancreas is so overlooked…until you get pancreatitis. Some deal with your gallbladder…everyone point to your gallbladder....
Paul is making a point here about the value of each one of you, and how much we are needed in each others lives, lets check it out, verse 12...
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
Just for clarity, when Paul says in verse 13 by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, he’s not talking about water baptism there. Like baptism is some initiation into our Christian club, He says by one Spirit. He’s talking about when we get saved, at that moment of conversion, the Holy Spirit comes into you, and you, and you, into Jew into Greek, baptist, pentecostal, Presbyterian, Methodist, Nazarene, Calvary Chapel,....all that have been saved are linked together, into one body, just like our DNA is shared by every piece and part of our Human body, it’s the Holy Spirit who indwells us, that connects us all as the Body of Christ. Paul is stating that as a fact, not a goal for us to try to achieve…in verse 14, for in fact, the body is not one member, but many.
That applies in a couple of different ways, first Calvary Chapel is not the only part in the body of Christ, we know that. AND us individually aren’t all the same member....We aren’t walking around 100 of us are hearts, and 50 of us aren’t mouths, (more like 80-90), no, but we have a tenancy to look at what the Holy Spirit has willed to bless us with as a Spiritual gift to be used to build up the body and we start to think that everyone else should be doing what we have been gifted supernaturally to do. If you have the gift of evangelism, you might think why doesn’t everyone share their faith? Are these guys even Christians!?! It’s so easy! I past out 10 tracks a day and try to have at least 5 conversations with strangers everyday about Jesus, it’s not hard at all, well sometimes it’s hard to not talk to 50!
I can’t believe this church has a hard time finding people gifted with hospitality to host Growth Groups in their homes. That’s why God gave you a house, open it up, and invite the world in! I love spending time with the Children in this church…it’s a shame that they still have that slide up about needing volunteers in children’s ministry, it’s so refreshing spending time back there, the rest of these people are so self focused! I know no one really thinks like that, well maybe sometimes. Gifts are something that we supernaturally receive and they can feel quite natural for us to operate in them because God has given them to us, so that we will use them for the benefit of others.
You might not yet know fully what your gift is yet, I’d encourage you to look to the things the Lord has given you a love for, and the things that you notice, or get under your skin a little. If it bugs you that we sometimes have flies on the lenses of our lights…if you notice stuff like that, you may have a gift of helps, or of service....we all have at least one, and they are different by necessity. Verse 15....
15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?
16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?
Paul is saying it would be ridiculous for a member of the body, a part that helps to make up the whole to feel like it wasn’t a part of the body, or was excluded from the body, because it wasn’t the hand, or the heart, or the head....just as much as it would be for me or for you to look at someone else and want to exclude them because we didn’t appreciate their gift, or because they were different. We all know we’re a little different, that’s why we fit here right? Diversity should never divide us, diversity is what God designed to unite us together. We should see each other as being the parts that we’re missing, and be grateful.
Oh, look, there’s the hands, we need those, that woman has a heart, what a blessing, these three are the ears, these guys have the gift of intercessor prayer, I want them using that gift on my behalf for sure. I can do this, or I can do that, but I’m just totally uncomfortable with having people in my home, praise the Lord for people like Nick and Jodie who have that gift and open their home, and their land for us to have church events at. There should be unity because of our diversity! Verse 18...
18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.
Did you guys see that, God has set the members, every single one of you, just as He pleased. I think He might know better than us. Not only that, but if you’re a hand, and I’m the foot. AND your a hand and I’m a foot because God decided that and it made Him happy, then I’ve not nothing to brag about, there’s not room for pride in us about I have the gift of teaching, or of leadership, or of whatever, so what, you had nothing to do with it, it was given to you…you’re just the rich guy’s son. You’re gift fell in your lap.
Do you know what else is cool about that? That God has set the members, and He was pleased with it, that leaves no room for pride, but it also leaves no room for shame! There’s no shame that you don’t have one of the other gifts, there’s no shame that you’re not the head. No shame that you’re the pinky toe, that Aaron Rogers can’t stop thinking about how much he wants you to stop hurting so the whole body is working like it’s supposed to! Verse 21...
21 And 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.”
22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty,
24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it,
Head can’t say I do all the thinking, the whole system functions at my command, I don’t need you feet…we’re pretty dependent on our feet, and we never think about them, until we break a pinky toe, get an ingrown nail, plantar fasciitis, man, you get that and you’ll learn how everything is connected right up to your hips!
You may feel like your gift is not recognized or under appreciated, let God give you honor for that gift, not man. Verse 25
25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
There is so much wisdom in what Paul is teaching here. He’s not just the mean old grumpy founding Pastor of the church saying do this because I said so. I’m the head, now do these things out of obedience. As the Apostle Paul he had apostolic authority and he could have, but he is saying I want you guys to have understanding of these things, I don’t want you to be ignorant concerning Spiritual gifts, how they work. Why we’re all so different and how God designed it all to build us all up together as His church. Being a member of the body, we are to care about every other part and look out for the body as a whole. I heard Pastor David Guzik teach on this passage once and he asked the question, do you know what we call a part of the body that feeds itself and has no regard for the other members of the body or the body as a whole?
Cancer! What a great point! That’s what we don’t want to be in the body of Christ, the one that does no benefit, but just drains every other cell and system in the body.
Now he takes the example that he used of the physical body and gives application to the Spiritual…verse 27..
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.
29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?
Apostles are special ambassadors of the church. The foundation of the church has already been laid, so I don’t think that there are Apostles today with the same authority as Peter and Paul, but I do think there are guys that still are special ambassadors in the church today, or in the modern age. Probably not anyone that has taken that title or calls themselves an Apostle, most of them appear to be nuts to me…but a man like Billy Graham maybe, an evangelist like Greg Laurie, maybe?
A prophet is one gifted to speak forth for God to mankind, certainly, there was a foundational element to this gift as well. But I do believe that God still uses prophecy today and it is a gift active in the church today, probably not by anyone that calls himself a prophet. If there’s ever anyone standing up here in this church that takes the roll of Apostle or declares themselves to be Prophet so and so, feel free to use the side exits and find another church. Do you guys know what the Old Testament standard was for a prophet? 100%, if there was any error that they spoke, claiming to be speaking for God, they were put to death!
Teachers, pretty obvious I think, after that miracles. Miracles that God does and uses men and women to do as He chooses, not, I’m Brian and I have the gift to do miracles of my choosing at my will, no, all of these operate by His will. The gift of healing, again we can be the recipient of healing, or God can choose to heal someone and use us by praying for them....James writes about this...
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
This can certain apply to physical healing, but it can also be for spiritual healing, and this is where that supernatural, gift of faith comes hand in hand, mountain moving faith, and remember, it’s not necessarily the faith of the one that is sick, last week we talked about how sometimes it takes the gift of faith in order to let God use you in healing, or we wouldn’t have the guts to try.
28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.
29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?
Gift of helps. I love and appreciate people with the gift of helps, they may hold no office in the church, but they are the ones that come alongside, like Aaron and Hur, holding up the arms of Moses. These are the men and women that come alongside elders, pastors, teacher and help them in the work of the ministry. The perfect utility players. The Babe Ruth’s or Pete Rose’s in the church. Probably none of you are old enough to know who those guys were. Babe Ruth, before he started making candy bars was a baseball player for the Red Sox, he played a little for the Yankees too after he got old, but the guy started his career as a left handed pitcher, played all three positions in the outfield, he was a slugger a home run hitter, Pete Rose was one of those players you could stick wherever he was needed. He could bat both right and left handed, if you look up his stats he was a first baseman, and then they just put infield or outfield. Where do you need me today coach? That’s the gift of help, I love it.
Administrations - you’ve got your planners, your dreamers, the five year plan guys, and then the gift of administrations, here’s how we are going to get it done, step by step. I love watching my wife plan a project, every detail is planned out, every contingency covered. Huge blessing, needed gift that benefits the whole body.
And then varieties of tongues, again, much more to come on this in chapter 14, the proper usage of tongues. But again we will read Paul talking about tongues and unknown tongues, tongues of men and of angels. Any language is an agreement between people of what certain sounds mean. When I say dog, you guys know what I’m talking about. Paul describes tongues as praying without understanding, but the Spirit interceding for us perfectly. Tongues is a language with a different type of understanding or agreement. When we pray in an unknown tongue, we are in agreement with God that He perfectly understands what we are saying and we agree that we do not. So the greatest benefit is in our private devotional life, because the speaker has no understanding, and neither does anyone else, unless someone is present with the gift of interpretation of tongues, and I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. In verse 29 he starts asking what are rhetorical questions.
30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?
31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.
Verse 30 Paul’s clear meaning if I’m on that Island reading my Bible by myself, the logical conclusion I’m going to come up with here is that the gifts are all different, no Paul, we don’t all have the gift of healing, no Paul, tongues is not ment for every single believer. It bugs me so much that some corners of the church teach that everyone receives tongues, that tongues is the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Love is the evidence of that. So much damage has been done in the church, and sadly by the people that believe that the gift is still present and active in the church today. Verse 31…we will get into that next week, Lord willing in chapter 13 the Love chapter.
Grace and Peace Church.