Gifted to Serve (2)

Gifted to Serve

In Christianity theres a huge confusion about the gifts God has given the church.

The gifts are often seen as being for those guys in the early church, but not relevant to the modern churches.

Its interesting the Jews worship at a temple Herod the Great , the Edomite built who was a descendant of Esau. But there was no Ark of the Covenant nor the Shechinah Presence of Jehovah.

William R. Newell said it this way

“The glory had departed; but the Jews forgot all this, just as many Christians today, though often quite “Bible students,”—practically forget or ignore the immediate Presence of the Holy Spirit, with His all-necessary gifts: saying, “These belonged to the ‘early days’; but we have the written Word now, and do not need the gifts, as did the Early Church.”

And this self- sufficiency is leading, has led , to the same form of truth- without power, that the jews had in Christ’s day.

2 Tim. 3:5 “having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”

Romans 12:6-7 “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching;”

There are gifts that every believer has buts its only yielding to God you will find them.

The gifts are a manifestation of the Spirit of God to profit the whole body .

1 Cor 12:4 “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.”

These differing gifts are “according to the grace that was given unto us”

Paul speaks about the apostolic grace given to him. that

Romans 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”

These gifts are not our possessions but the Spirit possession.

Jesus is considered to be a gift

John 4:10 “Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.””

gift-dorean- something acquired or given without compensation in return.

The Holy Spirit is a gift

Acts 10:45 “And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.”

You ever been at a restaurant and you see gratuity added onto your check.

Jesus warns against thoughtless discipleship.

Jesus wants us to weigh the cost.

In every store we want to be the hero.

We want people to admire and say “look how gifted we are.”

But theres a cost associated with discipleship.

Luke 14:25-27 “Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”

Jesus is not saying hate your own family, but the stress is on the priority of love.

Jesus is saying love your family less then me.

This is evident in Gen 29:30-31 Where Jacobs greater love for Rachel is phrased by hating Leah.

Theres a devote despise dichotomy

You can’t love God and love mammon

Luke 16:13 ““No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.””

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 14:25–27

One’s loyalty to Jesus must come before his loyalty to his family or even to life itself. Indeed, those who did follow Jesus against their families’ desires were probably thought of as hating their families.

Gifts are important to Paul.

1 Cor 12:1 “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant (misinformed ):”

“ Now concerning” is often referring to a new section of the letter.

Paul didn’t want the corinthian church to be misinformed but informed about there spiritual gifts.

Pauls desire is to always to impart clear doctrine to the churches. His desire was never to misinform of mislead.

- Romans 1:11 “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established—” ( Doctrine is that spiritual gift)

- Romans 1:13 “Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles.”

- Romans 11:25 “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”

1 Cor 10:1 “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea,”

Unaware - to be lacking in knowledge or understanding.

Paul is giving them OT examples which lead to Christ.

2 Cor 1:8 “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.”

Paul was keeping them informed about his present sufferings.

1 Thess 4:13 “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.”

The comfort of Christ second coming.

1 Cor 12:2 “You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led.”

In the corinatians church the unbelievers where driven by there pagans gods .Paul calls them dumb idols.

Psalm 115:5 “They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see;”

But there dumb idols caused them to continue to be ignorant .

Jer. 10:5 “They are upright, like a palm tree, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, For they cannot do evil, Nor can they do any good.””

Also side note: The corinthian church was unusually gullible. Easily persuaded They believed Jesus didn’t come In the flesh.

As in other areas, so in using gifts in the church, believers should promote the glory of God and the good of others instead of self-satisfaction

1 Cor. 12:8-10 “for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 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.”

The list here includes nine gifts.

(1) Wisdom refers to insight into doctrinal truth. Paul exercised and expressed this gift in this letter (e.g., 2:6).

(2) Knowledge refers to the ability to apply doctrinal truth to life. Paul also exercised and expressed this gift in this letter (e.g., 12:1–3; 11:3). (Cf. the recurrence of the phrase “Do you not know” in 3:16; 5:6; 6:2–3, 9, 15–16, 19; 9:13, 24; also cf. 8:1–3, 10–11).

(3) Faith as a spiritual gift is probably an unusual measure of trust in God beyond that exercised by most Christians (e.g., 13:2).

(4) Healing is the ability to restore health (e.g., Acts 3:7; 19:12) and also to hold off death itself temporarily (Acts 9:40; 20:9–10).

(5) Miraculous powers may refer to exorcising demons (Acts 19:12) or inducing physical disability (Acts 13:11) or even death (Acts 5:5, 9).

(6) Prophecy is the ability, like that of the Old Testament prophets, to declare a message of God for His people (1 Cor. 14:3).

(7) Ability to distinguish between spirits is the gift to differentiate the Word of God proclaimed by a true prophet from that of a satanic deceiver (cf. 2 Cor. 11:14–15; 1 John 4:1). If the Corinthians possessed this gift (cf. 1 Cor. 1:7), it was not being put to good use (cf. 12:1–3).

(8) Tongues refers to the ability to speak an unlearned, living language (e.g., Acts 2:11).

(9) Interpretation was the ability to translate an unlearned, known language expressed in the assembly (1 Cor. 14:27).

With the possible exception of faith, all these gifts seem to have been confirmatory and foundational gifts for the establishment of the church (cf. Heb. 2:4; Eph. 2:20) and were therefore temporary.