1 Corinthians 12:01-07 – The Spirit & His Gifts

Translation and Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 28 Jun 2009

Translation

1. Now concerning the things of the Spirit: Brothers, I am not willing for you to be ignorant,

2. Y’all have known that when you were being pagans,

            whenever you were being led, you were being led away toward the voiceless idols.

3. Therefore I am making known to you

            that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed,”

            and no one is able to say, “Jesus is Lord,” except in the Holy Spirit.

4. Now, there are various portions of giftings yet the same Spirit,

5. and there are various portions of services and the same Lord,

6. and there are various portions of energizings, yet the same God energizing all of them in everyone.

7. Now, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit toward the [goal of] bearing together, for:

            8. to one a word of wisdom is given through the Spirit,

            but to another, a word of knowledge - according to the same Spirit,

            9. to yet another, faith - in the same Spirit,

            but to another, gifts of healings - in the same Spirit,

            10. and to another, energizings for miracles,

            but to another, prophecy,

            and to another, the distinguishing of spirits,

            to yet another, kinds of languages,

            and to another, interpretation of languages.

11. But one and the same Spirit is energizing all these,

            variously apportioning to each individual just as He wills.

Introduction

· Wiccans that Scarboroughs met in SD that worship an idol and sacrifice blood. (Voiceless idols)

· As we saw earlier in 1 Cor 10:20, sacrifices to idols are really led by and sacrificed to demons.

· Hab. 2:18-19 “What does the graven image profit, that its maker has carved it; and the molten image,  the teacher of lies, for he who fashions its form trusts therein, to make dumb idols?  (19)  Woe unto him who says to wood, “Awake;” to the dumb stone, “Arise!” Shall this be a teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all inside of it.” (cf. Psalm 95:5-7, 115:5-7)

· Eph 2:12 – You were once Gentiles/pagans, without God, strangers to the hope of salvation

· “Idolatry is anything we put in place of Jesus Christ. Any concept or thing that begins to shape our thinking and demands most of our time is an idol. This could be money, a job, a house, a car, a mate, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, sports, politics, recreation, TV, drugs, alcohol, or a hundred other things which would be given first place above Christ… Behind all idolatry is the power of mind control exercised by demons.” (Jack Arnold)

Anathema Iasous

· Paul, before he was converted, may have tried to get the early Christians of Jerusalem to say that Jesus was accursed, for Deut. 21:23 teaches that anyone who is hung on a tree is accursed. Acts 26:11 “And punishing them oftentimes in all the synagogues, I strove to make them blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto foreign cities.”

· Other Jews also may have used this phrase, which Luke may have been calling blasphemy in Acts 13:45 “But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy, and contradicted the things which were spoken by Paul, and blasphemed… 18:6 “And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook out his raiment and said unto them, ‘Your blood is upon your own heads; I am clean: from now on I will go to the Gentiles.’”

· This is not just about blatant blasphemy. “Anyone who says that Jesus was a mere sinful man, a good teacher, a wonderful example, that person is lumping Him with the rest of sinful humanity, which his under the curse of Adam… Every teacher or group who does not acknowledge Jesus as Lord is not Christian but a false religion. This includes other religions like Muslims, Confucians, Buddhists, Shintoists, Hindus…Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, Unitarians, end every other cult in the world which does not see Jesus as full deity and full humanity.” (Jack Arnold)

All are “led” one way or another.

· “blindly hurried” – Vincent

· 1Co 10:20 “the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God...”

· I corresponded this week with a missionary to Venezuela who worked among the Yanomamo people. Some time earlier I had heard a former witchdoctor from the Yanomamo tribe describe how he talked with spirits and killed other tribesmen through the power of those spirits, but those spirits warned him to stay away from a great spirit which they called The Enemy God. The God of the Bible being preached by the missionary was this “Enemy God” whom the evil spirits were warning the witchdoctor about, but he decided to make contact with God anyway and discovered that the evil spirits had been lying to him all long. God is not our enemy; Satan and his demons are our real spiritual enemies, but we humans are so easily led astray!

Praise God that the Holy Spirit leads us to acknowledging Jesus as Lord

· (Not just saying it but submitting to His leadership and worshipping Him)

· Starts with becoming a Christian: Romans 10:9 “if thou confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved”

· 1 John 4:1 “Loved ones, do not believe in every spirit, but rather, judge the spirits whether they are out of God, because many false prophets have come out into the world. 2) In this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which agrees that Jesus Christ has come in a physical body is out of God, 3) and every spirit which does not agree with Jesus is not out of God, and this is the [spirit] of the antichrist, which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is in the world already.” (cf. 5:1-2)

· Polycarp – Romans captured him and threatened three times to kill him unless he said, “Caesar is Lord.” His reply, “Jesus is Lord!”

The Trinity and the personality of the Spirit

· “Spirit (v.4), Lord (v.5), God (v.6) = Trinity

· Focus on the Spirit in these first 11 verses, Lord is same as Jesus (Jesus  is Lord – v.3, brought up again in v.12 – the Body is the body of Christ), God the Father is mentioned in v.28 as “appointing” the leadership in the body.

· Some people think there is no such person as the Holy Spirit but that the Bible merely speaks of a spirit of holiness as in the idea of holiness, not a person.

· Here in 1 Cor 12 the Spirit is referred to as “giving” gifts to believers.

· Later in v.11, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit has a will and acts according to His own will. This is a characteristic of a person, not an impersonal force or idea.

· In Acts 5, Peter tells Ananias that he has “lied to the Holy Spirit,” therefore he has “lied to God,” equating the Holy Spirit with God.

· Furthermore, John 15:26 uses a personal pronoun – not a neuter indicating an “it,” but a masculine one, to refer to the Spirit: “when the Comforter has come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he shall bear witness of me:” John goes on in the next chapter to explain, (16:14) “He shall glorify me: for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you.”

So it is the will and work of God the Holy Spirit to bring us under submission to Christ Jesus.

· If you are a Christian, it is because the Holy Spirit has done this work in your heart to lead you to Jesus because otherwise you would be led away from Jesus to follow dumb idols.

· You don’t have to wait for a separate experience of being filled with the Spirit. When you become a Christian, you were filled with the Holy Spirit, and you still have the full presence of Spirit.

· Paul already affirmed in 2:12 and 3:16 that believers have already received the spirit from God and the Spirit of God dwells in them. See also Romans 8:9,14, 2 Cor 1:22, 5:5, James 4:5, 1 John 3:24.

· Every Christian not only has the Holy Spirit, but also has at least one gift from the Holy Spirit

o being given to each – v.7,

o distributing/apportioning/giving to each individual – v.11

o Note that in both cases, the giving is in the present tense, indicating an ongoing giving, not a one-time gift.

o How can you tell what your spiritual gift is? Try one of the spiritual gift inventory papers on the literature table, or contact me for a computerized version. Study the lists of spiritual gifts for yourself in the Bible and consider which ones describe the things you care most about and love most to do, and that will probably bring your spiritual gift to light.

Gifts, Ministries/services, and Activities/effects/works

1. Gifts: charismata, indicating freeness, unearned, undeserved graciousness of the gift

· Rom 12:6 ASV  And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us…

2. Ministries/services=deacon, spiritual service of an official character (Vin.) “a specific way to serve God” (Ratliffe)

• Paul spoke of his service as an apostle to the Gentiles as his ministry/service (Rom 11:13, Acts 20:24, 1 Tim 1:12)
•  and of the collection he took for the poor as a ministry (2 Cor 8:4),
• he also told Timothy to fulfill his “ministry” (2 Tim 4:5) of the word (Acts 6:4) and church eldership.
• He also spoke of the work of everyone in the church in building up the body of Christ as “ministry” (Eph 4:11-12).

3. Energy: activities/effects/working – outward manifestations, results, and effects of spiritual gifts (Vin/JFB)

• “We are to know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might” (Eph 1:19)
• Illustration: Bass guitar when plugged into an amplifier is able to be heard, otherwise not.
• The concept that you are plugged into energy from an outside source, from God, and as His power operates in you, you become able to do what you could never have done by yourself.
• (cf Mar 6:14, Eph 3:7, Col 2:12, James 5:16)
• Unlike evil spirits who seem to center upon one particular sin, whether it be lust or lying or fear, every spiritual gift comes from one and the same source, God the Holy Spirit.
• APPLICATION: Since your gifts come from God, don’t boast about how great you are or how great your gifts are; boast about how great your God is who gave you those gifts.
• CONVERSELY, Since the Holy Spirit gave a unique gift to you intentionally, don’t fall into the trap of thinking He gave you a second-class gift that isn’t as good as other people’s. In His wisdom He gave you what you have for a good reason; trust Him on this!

The purpose of the spiritual gifts

• v.7 – for the common good/profit/advantage/lit. bearing together
• 1 Cor. 10:23 “All things are lawful; but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful; but not all things edify.  (24)  Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbor's good…  (33)  even as I also please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved.” (cf. Eph 4:12, 1Cor 6:12)
• 1 Cor 14:26 “When you come together, each one has a psalm… a teaching… a revelation… a tongue… an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.”
• APPLICATION: Do not neglect to do what you are good at; use your skills and giftings. Don’t hide them! Don’t sit back and wait for the church leaders to recognize your talents and twist your arm to do something with them; take the initiative to start doing something you enjoy doing!
• ALSO, Instead of using your spiritual gifts to put yourself forward, consider how to use your gifts to add value to everyone else in the church.
• For instance, if you are good at talking to people and making friends, use that gift to grow the church rather than just to get everybody currently in the church to like you.
• If you are good at designing beautiful things, rather than just making yourself and your clothes look beautiful, consider how to make our worship facilities beautiful.

The differentiation of the spiritual gifts

• “diversities/varieties/different kinds” is used 4 times in the first 11 verses to describe the gifts.
• 9 different gifts listed between verses 8-11, or eleven gifts if you count “administration” and “service” from verses 5-6!
• APPLICATION: Your gifts will be different from other people’s gifts.
• Illustration of Steve Ratliffe projecting the demands of his teaching gift to read and study the Bible upon Christians who couldn’t read.
• 1Pet. 4:10 “as each has received a gift, minister it among yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God”
• ALSO, Notice ways to blend your gift in with another’s gift:
• for instance, people with the more spectacular gifts, such as speaking and faith leadership, desperately need helpers and administrators to complement them with the practical behind-the-scenes preparations for ministry and follow up after special events.
• My Mom hates being in groups of people and is gets uncomfortable with too much attention. She likes to sit on the back row at her church and slip out quickly without being seen. I, on the other hand, enjoy limelight in limited doses. But I don’t have it in me to be well-prepared all the time and be the perfect pastor, so my Mom prays for me as I prepare to lead worship and as I lead worship, and I believe that even though we are hundreds of miles apart, her hidden prayers from her home and from the back rows of her church are a strategic part of making me able to do God’s will as a preacher. The differences in our gifts can complement each other.
• “when the variety of gifts is directed to the same object, as in music, there are different sounds, but suited to each other with such an adaptation, as to produce concord.” ~J. Calvin [like a symphony orchestra]
• Let’s plan to look at the following spiritual gifts more in depth next week.

Order of Worship

Date	28-Jun-09
Call2Worship	Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
AscentPsalm	Psalter 134A
Creed	1 Corinthians 15:3-4 & I Timothy 3:16
PrayerAdore	Chip
ConfessionText	Mat 15:22-27 A Canaanite woman … worshipped (bowed before) Him, saying, "Lord, help me!"
PrayerConfess	Mark
ForgivenessSong	Empty Me (guitar and band)
OT Text	Isaiah 61:1-9
Lector	Pete M.
NT Text	Ephesians 4
SermonSong	Come Thou Almighty King (#101)
SermonText	1 Cor. 12:1-11 "The Spirit and His Gifts"
PrayerSupplication	Nate
CommPrepSong	Praise Ye the Father (#107)
CommunionText	Rev 3:20 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
CommunionSong	He is Lord
Benediction	Jud 1:24-25 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
ClosingSong	Gloria Patri
	Who is the focus of this passage?
	What is the will and work of the Holy Spirit?
	What gifts does He give? Has He given you any of these?
	Why does He give gifts? How can you use your gifts in line with His will?