The Spirit Revealed

Would God’s people please take
their Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Kind of chatting
and joking with a few people as I made my way through the
church that we’ve gone from one smoking series to the next, from
head coverings and then the Lord’s table. Well, idols before that,
and now we are considering this really incredible section on
spiritual gifts. As you know, this will course
all the way through chapter 14. So we have plenty of time to
deal with a lot of issues that have already prompted questions.
But chapter 12 is just such a really neat chapter. The more I look
at it, the more excited I am to preach it. As we began to consider last
Lord’s Day, the Holy Spirit was being poured out as never before
in God’s economy. From the moment this amazing
provision of God first began, as it was recorded in Acts chapter
two, It was understood as a direct fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy.
That’s what Peter explained. I will pour out my spirit on
all mankind. Your sons and daughters will
prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams.
Your young men will see visions. This is that great outpouring
that is just continuing now in the church not only in Corinth,
but even down to our day. There are gifts that have ceased. I will go on to try and show
you and teach you what I mean by that. But there are gifts
that are sustained down to our day, and they ought to be employed. Well, it began at the moment
of the birth of Christ’s church, that great outpouring of the
Holy Spirit did not cease. It continues down to this day,
not with every gift that was ever given, as we will see, but
the Holy Spirit and His dynamic gifts to the members of Christ’s
church continue in their blessing of the church and in her influence
in the world. I’m just going to breeze through
these things again, but in John’s gospel, Jesus himself promised
a helper, remember? One who would be with you forever. the Spirit of Truth, John 14,
16, and 17. It was God’s design that this
helper would be a perpetual aid to Christ’s people. He will teach
you all things and bring to your remembrance all that Jesus had
taught during His earthly ministry. As Jesus declared in the very
next chapter, John chapter 15, not only would the Spirit of
Truth testify about Jesus, He would be the great spiritual
energy behind the people’s testimony as well. This is why Jesus proceeds
to tell us in John 16 that it was imperative that He go away,
that He ascend into heaven, so that the helper, the Holy Spirit,
would come. His ministry among God’s people
would be dynamic. Jesus promised that he will convict
the world of sin and righteousness and judgment, and he will guide
Christians into all the truth, and he will glorify Jesus Christ. And it could well be said that
this is what the Holy Spirit was doing at the very moment
Paul was writing. It’s an amazing thought. The
Holy Spirit was not only at work in the Jerusalem church and at
Corinth, he was active and alive at work in Ephesus as well, as
Paul wrote. And through the pen of this apostle,
it was powerfully poured forth. This epistle to the Corinthians
was very much a guide into all the truth. This letter is a direct
result of the helper’s ministry in and to the church, not only
in Corinth, but our church as well. But in addition to teaching
God’s people, the Holy Spirit was also the member of the Trinity
who bore the responsibility of granting gifts, spiritual gifts,
also referred to as grace gifts, to individual believers, each
individual believer. These gifts were most prominently
displayed at Pentecost by great displays of power, fantastic
signs. And the Corinthian believers,
like all believers, had been abundantly supplied with supernatural
gifts. not only with supernatural gifts,
but with all manner of various means by which and with which
to serve Christ by serving His church. What an exciting thing.
Well, if the gifts were remarkable, fantastic, supernatural, unfortunately
the believers were not. Not unlike the church in our
own day, believers in Corinth were, for the most part, spiritually
immature. And sadly, that negatively affected
even their spirit-imparted gifts. In this much-divided church,
even spiritual gifts intended by God to bless and build the
church have become the source of pride and envy and ultimately
division. It seemed that only the more
ostentatious of the Spirit’s gift were really esteemed, valued
by the people. Those on whom the Spirit bestowed
them were highly favored. If they had a great gift, they
were well thought of. Those gifts they deemed lesser
were despised. as were those who possessed them. We come again to chapter 12.
And for our purposes again today, I want to take the chapter in
its entirety. As we continue to nestle into
the context of this great chapter. Now concerning spiritual gifts,
brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. You know that when
you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however
you were led. Therefore, I make known to you
that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus is accursed,
and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Now
there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there
are varieties of ministries, but the same Lord. and varieties
of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is
given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the
word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, and to another
faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by
the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and
to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits,
and to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the
interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works
all these things, distributing to each one individually, just
as He wills. For even as the body is one and
yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though
they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one
spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks,
whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one
spirit. For the body is not one member,
but many. If the foot says, because I am
not a hand, I am not part of the body, it is not for this
reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, because
I am not an eye, I am not part of the body, it is not for this
reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were
an eye, where would the hearing be? And if the whole were hearing,
where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the
individual members, the members, each one of them in the body
just as he desired. If they were all one member,
where would the body be? But now there are many members,
but one body, and the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need
of you. Or again, the head to the feet,
I have no need of you. On the contrary, it is much truer
that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary,
and those members of the body which we deem less honorable,
on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable
members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable
members have no need of it. But God is so comprised the body,
giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so
that there may be no division in the body, but that the members
may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers,
all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all
the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ’s body and
individually members of it. And if God has appointed in the
church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then
miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various
kinds of tongues, all are not apostles, are they? All are not
prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they?
All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have the
gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues,
do they? All do not interpret, do they? But earnestly desire
the greater gifts, and I shall show you still a more excellent
way.” Paul has directed his attention to spiritual gifts, and he has
done so almost certainly because of a question that the Corinthians
had posed to him. With that phrase, he has repeated
in this letter, now concerning Paul transitions to the subject
of spiritual gifts, gifts that were granted by the Holy Spirit.
These believers had something to learn about the subject. Paul
didn’t want them to be unaware, he says, and he had much to teach
them on the subject of the Holy Spirit’s ministry among Christ’s
body. And the first thing that he does
is to put things in context. He contrasts their former experiences
in the spiritual realm with their new spiritual life as Christians. As pagans, they were yanked around,
led astray by all manner of questionable means to a dead, lifeless, speechless
idol. And their devotion to these so-called
gods, they received absolutely nothing in return. And therein
lay the great contrast. Instead of a dead idol, they
are now indwelled by the living Spirit of God, who has already
manifested himself in them by leading them first and foremost
to a profession of faith. Jesus is Lord. If there were never another gift,
never another blessing granted, by means of the Holy Spirit,
this one initial gift would be more than enough. It is the gift
of life. It’s the gift of salvation. It’s the gift of justification.
That’s quite a contrast from their previous spiritual experience,
isn’t it? But Paul wants to move beyond
the foundational work of the spirit in a believer’s life,
beyond the work of salvation, because each Christian has been
placed in Christ’s church and therefore has been gifted for
use in Christ’s church. The Holy Spirit powerfully reveals
himself in the world by granting a diverse array of gifts to individual
believers. That’s what Paul moves to present
to us in verses four through 10. The Spirit revealed. That’s what
Paul begins to discuss in these verses. The Spirit grants a diverse
array of gifts to individuals, and in those he reveals himself
to the world. First of all, this morning, let’s
look at the one giver of gifts. We see it in verses four through
six, and he makes the point three times over. There are varieties
of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are varieties of ministries,
but the same Lord. There are varieties of effects,
but the same God who works all things in all persons. Paul makes
three statements here in verses four through six, and it’s in
a beautiful poetic style. He reiterates several elements
for emphasis. You saw it, you heard it. He
repeats the phrases, there are varieties. And he repeats the
words the same in each of those three sentences. It’s intentional. It’s an intentional juxtaposition
where he has variety on one hand and sameness in the other. It’s
intentional as we’ll see, varieties of gifts, same spirit, varieties
of ministry, same Lord, varieties of effects, same God. It’s intentional. In the dispensing of these gifts,
ministries, and effects, there is great diversity. Not everyone
receives the same gift. What we have is a God-given variety,
different gifts in varied quantity as well. Paul wrote a subsequent
epistle to the Romans, as you know, where he addresses this
same exact issue. And there in verse six of chapter
12, he underscores that we have gifts that differ. That’s a beautiful
thing. We have gifts that differ, why?
According to the grace that was given to us. It was God’s decision. This is Paul’s point here in
1 Corinthians 12. Not only that we have a variety
of gifts, but that this is by God’s doing. We’ll come back
again and again to Romans chapter 12. All three members of the
Trinity in this particular passage are presented here in these verses.
The Spirit, the Lord Jesus, and the Heavenly Father, God. And
as Paul is making a plea for unity here, this passage is a
near mirror image of Ephesians chapter 4, where Paul again presents
the three members of the Trinity. Would you turn to Ephesians 4
just for a moment? We’ll just be there a moment.
Ephesians chapter 4 is such a great passage anyway. I never shy away
from having you turn to passages like this. Ephesians chapter four, and just
start in verse one. It’ll kind of ease in. Therefore,
I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner
worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all
humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for
one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace. In that sense, it is exactly
the same plea that he’s making to the Corinthians, unity. Unity
in Christ. Follow along looking at verse
four. There is one body and one spirit. Just as you were called
in one hope of your calling, one Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over
all and through all and in all. He makes the same exact point. All the members of the Trinity,
all are urging us to unity in Christ. Back, if you would, to
1 Corinthians 12. Let’s consider each of those
statements in turn. Consider, if you would, his statement
in verse 4. Now, there are varieties of gifts,
but the same Spirit. This point, we could even say,
is Paul’s primary point throughout this entire section, all the
way to chapter 14. We could even say that this articulates
his theme of these chapters. This section, after all, is about
the spirit given gifts. It’s important to note that here
in verse 4, Paul uses the word charisma when he speaks of these
gifts, grace gifts. These are those gifts that are
wholly undeserved. They’re unearned. They’re granted
as favors by God by means of the Holy Spirit. This is not
a natural talent that is honed over years of practice. This
is a God given gift. These are those gifts. We may
think of them as God-given means of serving Him and others. And Paul will go on to detail
the great breadth and diversity of these gifts. But initially
here, his emphasis is the common source of these gifts. They are
all from the same Spirit. We cannot overlook the specific
point of these verses as captured by these repeating words, variety
and same. Paul’s point is that in diversity,
that is in variety, variety of these spiritual gifts dispensed,
the one Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit, is the giver of
these gifts. That argument alone should have
put an end to the Corinthian squabbling over who had the greater
gift. The gifts are all granted by
the one Holy Spirit. Paul’s second statement, we find
it in verse five, is not a change in direction. Paul is not transitioning
here to a what is going to be a lengthy discussion of the different
kinds of ministries or even of Christ the Lord in these various
ministries. His statement is really just
a reiteration of the point that he makes in verse four. You have
variety and you have sameness. By the word ministries there,
the word is, if you’re curious, diakonia, from which we get our
word deacon. It just refers to service, service
of some kind performed unto the Lord. There are varieties of
ministries. Some are more obscure, hardly
noticed at all. Some are grand and visible to
everybody. Some ministries involve many
people, some involve only a few. Some require great resources
and administration. Some seem to just run all on
their own. The point is there are lots of
different kinds of ministries, just as there are lots of different
kinds of gifts. But even though there are varieties
of ministries, there is a common source. What Paul says is the
same Lord. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
one to whom, by whom, and for whom are all ministry efforts. Paul’s unspoken point is how
foolish then to pit against one another, as is so often the habit,
over one ministry against another. Paul’s third statement is just
an echo of his first two. Verse six, there are varieties
of effects, but the same God. Again, you have variety and you
have sameness. The word effects just refers
to the results of the so many gifts and ministries, the end
results. What do they produce? There is
great diversity in what is granted, but it’s the same source. In
this case, it’s God the Father. As Paul says at the end of Romans
11, from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. Everything
begins and ends with God the Father. All acts of service are
performed unto him. How strange then and divisive
to tear apart when everything has their common source in him. Now, as I mentioned a moment
ago, Paul is going to discuss the various gifts, but he balances
the point that he makes here in verses four through six with
a statement in verse seven. And here he tells us the divine
purpose in these gifts. Not only is there variety, not
only is there sameness in the source, but he tells us here
the divine purpose of these gifts. Would you look at verse seven?
But to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for
the common good. This statement we might think
of as the culmination or the conclusion of Paul’s statements
in verses four through six, varieties and sameness. But here, Paul
isolates right down to the individual, each one of us. To each one,
he says. An individual believer will remain
the focus throughout this entire chapter. It’s a beautiful thing.
Look, if you would, at verse 11, where the one same spirit
works all these things, distributing to each one individually, just
as he wills. The individual is in focus. Look,
please, at verse 18. But now God has placed the members,
each one, each one of them in the body. And lastly, glance
down at verse 27. Now you are Christ’s body and
individually members of it. Paul is focusing here on the
Spirit’s work in each individual believer. And to each one, he
has given a means of serving Christ. What a beautiful thing.
Verses four through six really then lay the groundwork for his
conclusion here. And his point is simple as it
is significant. These spirit given gifts, as
diverse and as varied as they are, they are bestowed for one
and only one reason. Note, first of all, that they
are given to each one. These spiritual gifts are bestowed
on every believer. And if possible, for the first
time you realize that if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ, you now have a responsibility. We’ll come back to that thought. They’re given to each one. These
spiritual gifts are bestowed on every believer. There is diversity
in the kinds of gifts that are given, that are received, but
everyone, every believer is gifted by the Spirit to serve the Lord
Jesus. And look secondly at the way
that Paul describes this gifting. It is the manifestation of the
Spirit. That’s an amazing statement.
Do you grasp the significance of that? That word translated
manifestation speaks of revealing or uncovering something that
has been previously hidden. So that the church might know
and see His holy presence, He makes Himself manifest, revealed
through His presence in every believer. What an amazing thought. The Spirit makes Himself known
by the special gifts that He gives to each of God’s children.
To exercise one’s spiritual gift, then, is to put the Holy Spirit
on display. And this, Paul concludes, is
a benefit to the entire church. Look at the passage. These many
and varied gifts are given for the common good of the church.
We not only enjoy the blessing of serving the Lord by our gift,
But it is also a blessing to others and strengthens and unifies
Christ’s church when we exercise our gift. The gifts are given
to individuals, to each one. That much is clear. But they are given and exercised
for the body, for the entire body of believers. The whole church benefits from
them. And this too declares the unreasonableness of treating
these gifts as self-glorifying, individualized favors to be paraded
or bickered over for selfish reasons. And with that, having
received gifts by which to manifest the Spirit in the church, each
one, every believer, Every believer would have been pondering their
own spiritual gifts just like you are. What do I have? How have I been gifted to serve
for which I am now more responsible? And so Paul begins to look to
focus on a diverse spectrum of gifts, and he does so in verses
8 through 10. Now I will tell you, We have
many, many weeks, if not months in our study of these chapters,
all the way down through chapter 14. And I’ll tell you ahead of
time, there are gifts that are permanent and perpetual in the
church. As long as the church is on the
earth, there are gifts that the Holy Spirit has given to individuals
in the church to be perpetuated throughout the church as long
as it’s on the earth. And there are gifts that were
given that were temporary. They were sign gifts. We’ll talk
all about that. I’m going to allude to some of
them today, probably describe each one of them. But we’ll come
back and we’ll talk about what is a temporary sign gift and
what is a permanent, that is perpetual gift in the church. Looking at verses 8 through 10,
we see this diverse spectrum of gifts. For to one is given
the word of wisdom through the spirit, and to another, the word
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 effecting of miracles, to another, prophecy,
to another, the distinguishing of spirits, to another, various
kinds of tongues, and to another, the interpretation of tongues. And as we look at this gift, This list of gifts that Paul
has set before us, we should note a few things. First, this
list is not complete. So if you sat there forlornly
and not seeing the gift that you believe that you possess, don’t despair. This list does
not cite every possible spiritual gift. Instead, Paul presents
a representative number of the gifts of the Spirit for his discussion’s
sake. The second thing that I should
acknowledge here is that I don’t believe that there is any kind
of categorization of these gifts at all. Some commentators attempt
to make a great deal about some of the various pronouns that
are used to introduce these gifts. I’ll tell you what I mean. This
won’t keep you up tonight. It may put you to sleep this
morning. This whole thing is completely
obscured in our translation. Using the word another, you probably
see it nine times in your translation. The passage just flows from gift
to gift to gift, to one another, to another, to another. But this
one English word is translated by two Greek words, alos and
heteros. The words are similar in meaning
and use, but some have attempted to make a big deal of the fact
that Paul uses heteros twice in this list. He does so at the
beginning of verse nine and again in the middle of verse 10. And
because of that, some have suggested that there are three categories
of gifts. And they spill a lot of ink describing
it. The whole thing is unnecessary
and overplayed, in my opinion. Paul is just presenting a diverse
list of different gifts. He doesn’t even list every gift
possible. And just as he is effectively
done in the verses above, he reminds his readers again in
verses eight and nine, that the Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit,
is the one giver of these gifts. That’s his main point. This is
much harder to see in our English translations, but there are actually
three different prepositions used to identify the Spirit’s
work. If your neighbor starts to snore,
just gently use your elbow. Three different prepositions.
Dia, at the beginning of verse eight, through the Spirit. Cata,
at the middle of verse eight, according to the Spirit. And
en, twice in verse nine, in or by the same Spirit. The first,
through, speaks of the means of spiritual effectiveness. The
second, according to, presents the divine standard of such gifts. And the third, by, or in, indicates
the sphere in which we operate with these gifts. In other words,
in every possible way, these gifts are of the Holy Spirit. All right, Greek lesson is over.
We need to gain an understanding of the nature of each of these
gifts. The first gift that Paul mentions is the word wisdom. And it’s closely related to the
second gift, the word of knowledge. Knowledge is the more basic of
these two. It just indicates a grasp of
a fact or a set of facts. an understanding of those things.
This is what a scientist would do. This is what a student of
scripture would do. Knowledge comes by way of study
and observation and investigation. Wisdom, on the other hand, is
the application of such knowledge. And it comes by painstaking trial
and error, doesn’t it? In the case of both of these
gifts, when Paul speaks of the word of wisdom, a word of knowledge,
he indicates some spiritual enablement to speak in a particular way. In other words, it’s the divinely
provided power to communicate, to communicate either wisdom
or knowledge or both. One scholar referred to these
two gifts as the qualification of a pastor and teacher respectively. I think that’s a good distinction.
Knowledge is the ability to teach what one has learned. Wisdom
is the skill of rightly applying such knowledge, the capability
of observing principles and carefully applying them to daily life.
Both of these are vitally needed in pastoral ministry, right?
Teaching, leading, counseling. So a word of wisdom here does
not necessarily need to be an articulation of divine revelation
that is given on the spot. That’s how this gift is usually
discussed in our current day. Where zap, somebody gets a word
of wisdom, a word of knowledge, some immediate revelation from
God, that by the way is not recorded in scripture. And off they go
imparting this new revelation to any who will listen. This instead is a statement,
this word of wisdom, drawing upon wisdom gleaned from God’s
Word, is no less wisdom than a lightning bolt message from
the sky. Such knowledge and wisdom could
come, by the way, on the spot, Spirit imparted revelation. It’s
possible And it’s possible that even in Corinth, there were those
that were listening for God and that God would impart them some
immediate zap, a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge. But it could
also come and still does from observation of divine revelation
that has long since been given. God’s Word, the Bible. The greatest word of wisdom is
the knowledge of the gospel, right? Carefully articulated
to the hearers. The third gift in Paul’s list
is that of faith. Now, I know what you’re thinking
already. This cannot possibly be the simple
gift of saving faith, because every Christian receives that
gift. It isn’t considered a special spiritual gift in that sense.
This faith is spectacular faith, amazing faith, uncommon faith. This is a faith that embraces
a God-given enablement to trust God in perilous times. Circumstances that from a human
perspective look to be impossible, the person blessed with great
faith embraces. This kind of faith is bold and
courageous. It’s a faith that is not only
willing to face any foe, but trusts God for the victory. This
is the faith of little David face to face with Goliath, right?
It’s the faith that expects miracles and yet eagerly submits and yields
if martyrdom awaits. Hebrews 11, you know, speaks
of this kind of what we might call in our day, super faith.
The super faith is seen in great saints such as Noah and Abraham
and Moses. But near the end of that chapter,
go ahead and turn, we have time. We don’t have a lot of time.
Hebrews chapter 11 and scroll down to verse 33. The writer of this amazing letter
has already articulated the great saints, many of the great saints
of Scripture, and their exploits by faith. But near the end of
that chapter, there’s a lengthy list of things accomplished by
faith by unnamed individuals. Now in some cases you can draw
some conjecture as to who might be referred to here, but Find
verse 33, and look, by faith they conquered kingdoms, they
performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths
of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of
the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in
war, put foreign armies to fight. Women received back their dead
by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting
their release. Verse 36, others experienced
mockings and scourgings, chains and imprisonment. Verse 37, some
were stoned, sawn in two, tempted, put to death by the sword. Any
of that takes great faith. if you’re going to glorify God
in the midst of it. All of those are examples of
this super faith. Back, if you would, to 1 Corinthians
12. The fourth gift, the fourth gift is the most visible by far
in Paul’s list, at least so far. It’s the gift of healing. I mean,
who wouldn’t want to possess that gift, right? You got the
flu coursing through the church. Boom, it’s gone. Well, this was the gift with
which the apostles we already know were blessed. We refreshed
ourselves with that reminder last week. Upon Christ’s apostles
was bestowed these powerful sign gifts, not the least of which
was the gift of healing. Acts 4 30, Peter recognized that
God had extended His hand to heal through the apostles. Acts
5 16, people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits,
even demon possession were all being healed. Paul says here
in 1 Corinthians 12 that some, even of the Corinthians, had
been blessed with this gift. And Paul acknowledges no limitations
on this gift when he cites it in the plural, healings, all
kinds of healings, not just the flu. Others were also blessed with
this gift at times, but this gift was not to be perpetuated
in the church indefinitely. This gift was a temporary sign
gift given first and foremost to validate the gospel message. Likewise, with the fifth gift
that Paul lists, the more general effecting of miracles. What amazing
healings, pardon me, where amazing healings leave off, the effecting
of miracles has to take over. Because healings weren’t the
only miracles needed. These are miracles noted by Luke
in the Book of Acts as signs and wonders. They were given
for the purpose of providing a powerful witness to God’s great
might. Signs and wonders. Acts 4 30,
5 12, 6 8, 14 3. Over and over again in the book
of Acts, they were referred to as signs and wonders. These are
those miracles that are situational, casting out of demons, raising
the dead, bringing God’s judgment down on the unrepentant. And
this too was a temporary sign gift. Next, and the next spiritual
gift on Paul’s list is a doozy. Prophecy. we tend to think of
prophecy as exclusively that of prediction of future events. It never has been just that.
The prophet faithfully and vigorously proclaimed God’s Word, whether
from direct revelation or principles derived from scripture, That
is why they often prefaced their declarations with, thus saith
the Lord. It was the Lord’s word, not their
own, that mattered. And this makes this particular
gift akin to words of wisdom and words of knowledge. But the
fact that this gift had the potential of direct revelation, made this
an exciting and much sought after gift by the Corinthians. Everybody
wanted to prophesy. The Old Testament prophets did
foretell both blessings and judgments of God’s people, but they did
so as God’s spokesmen. So not every message was a message
of prediction. And with the completion of God’s
revelation in the New Testament, the Word of God becomes the exclusive
source for the prophet’s proclamation. The zaps, the divine revelation
to the so-called prophet would cease in time. The seventh gift
mentioned in Paul’s list is the distinguishing of spirits. Now
mind you, this is not talking about someone who is a generally
good judge of character. Somebody who is occasionally
gets a funny feeling about someone. Last week we briefly considered
the passage in 1st John 4, 1st John 4, 1, Beloved, do not believe
every spirit. but test the spirits to see whether
they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out
into the world. John points out that there are
many charlatans, many false prophets who are pretending to bring messages
from God. This has only gotten worse in
our day and age with the advent of the internet and YouTube. They and their messages were
not from God. And so the ability to accurately
assess and expose falsehood was crucial to the church. Was this man self-motivated? Is he self-deceived? Or is he
even under demonic influence? Those are important questions
and still are. The gift of distinguishing spirits
enabled the one who possessed it to accurately assess the legitimacy
of a prophet. Is this person claiming a message
from God? Is he legit or not? That’s a
vital gift in the early church. And I would suggest to you that
that gift of discerning of spirits has largely passed away because
we have God’s word. This tells us who is and who
is not a false teacher. The second to last gift in Paul’s
list was and is the most well-known, the most anticipated, and in
a sense the most popular gift on the list. It’s the gift of
various kinds of tongues. Because this gift was such a
sensational display of God’s spirit, it was highly prized. If you couldn’t have the gift
of prophecy or the gift of healing, this one surely you could have. And if you had it, it was proudly
held. The result, however, was chaos.
In the church, in the church of Corinth, everyone wanted the
gift of tongues as it seemingly came with a measure of divine
revelation. And as a result, the gift of
tongues had become a personally enhancing possession instead
of something for the benefit of the church. But what exactly
was this gift? On that question, the Corinthians
seem to be rather confused. And that confusion continues
to our day. Would you turn back again to
Acts chapter two? This too will become a well-worn
section of our Bibles. As we were reminded last week,
the great outpouring of the Spirit as recorded in Acts two included
this fantastic gift of speaking in tongues. And Peter explained
that it was from Joel’s prophecy of fulfillment. And there in
Acts chapter 2 verse 4, the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit
primarily was manifested with the phenomena of, look at it,
speaking with other tongues as the Holy Spirit was giving him
utterance. Now, not only does it seem that
the Spirit stipulated the particular language that an individual would
speak, but He also gave them a particular message. They weren’t
just up there talking about, you know, the sporting event
of the day. They weren’t just saying anything.
Not only does it seem that the Holy Spirit gave them a message,
He gave them a particular language. Luke records exactly what was
occurring. Look at verse five. He just tells us that the Jews
present during, pardon me, during this amazing scene were from
every nation under heaven. That’s a lot of nations. Then
in verse six, he records that when the crowd came together,
they were bewildered because each one of them was hearing
them speak in his own language. That is the gift of Thomas. It
was a remarkable, unexplainable event. The believers in Christ,
now indwelled by the Holy Spirit, began speaking in other languages. Amazing. Now, if you’re going
to be a missionary in some foreign land, one of the first things
that you will do, you will have to go to language school. Most missionaries I’ve talked
to said that that is the most difficult season of all, especially
if you’re older, because learning languages becomes very difficult
as you age. If you’re going to function well,
you’re going to need to speak the language. That’s not what
the apostles did here. Supernaturally, immediately,
clearly, excellently, they began speaking with other tongues.
That is, they began speaking in other languages. This was
not just a personal observation that Luke made of that scene. The hearers themselves articulated
it, not believers, the hearers. Look at verse eight. How is it
that we each hear them in our own language? And just to make it very clear
that these were actual languages, verses nine through 11 lists
more than a dozen different countries. or regions, each with their own
language or dialect. And yet the conclusion at the
end of verse 11, just glance at it, we hear them in our own
tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God. The gift of the
Holy Spirit, as Paul calls it here, various kinds of tongues
were other actual languages, not some indecipherable gibberish. And that brings us to the final
gift on Paul’s list, that of the interpretation of tongues.
If these tongues were unintelligible speech, there would be no way
to interpret them. If these tongues are not a language, the interpretation
is impossible. We’ll talk much more about these
particular gifts in the weeks and months to come. What I would put to you this
morning, and we have a long way to go in our consideration of
Paul’s treatment on this subject, but what can we take away from
these few verses up to verse 10? Number one, there is a great
diversity in the kinds of gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to
believers. And if the Holy Spirit has not
given you that particular gift, don’t fret. He’s gifted you somehow,
some way. You can’t force it. You can’t
just train yourself to own a gift. Secondly, since the Holy Spirit
is the one common giver of these gifts, these gifts are to God’s
glory and not for our own. Third, if the Holy Spirit, and
He has, if the Holy Spirit has given to each one a means of
manifesting, showing, revealing the Spirit’s presence, if we
are not utilizing our God-given gifts, we are muting the display
of the Spirit in our midst. That’s a powerful consideration. Number four, as they are given
by the Holy Spirit for the common good of the church, they are
to be exercised always with others in mind, not ourselves. And fifthly, this morning, as
there is an incredible diversity in the gifts given we can already
begin to realize that we need others, and others need us. Peter said it this way in one
simple verse. First Peter 4 10, as each one
has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another
as good stewards of the grace of God. Would you humble yourself
in His glorious mercy?