When
I turned the calendar page over last Monday, the first thought
that hit me was that there are only 54 shopping days left before Christmas.
Those of you who know me, know that I love Christmas. I love dropping
the hints to see if Carol will get me everything I want. I love walking
through the stores, and driving around town, looking at all the Christmas
decorations.
So to start to
get us in the mood for Christmas, I brought in a gift that will hopefully
help turn one of your attentions to the Master gift-giver. Since God
takes delight in giving you the best gift you could ever hope for, the
Lord Jesus, I want to give one of you this present. If you will look
at your bulletin, and if you have the one I signed, please come on down
and claim your gift.
The reason I want
us to have in our minds the image of God giving gifts is that God loves
you so much that when you became a Christian, he gave you, along with
the gift of salvation, some very unique and special gifts. Gifts that
are more precious than any gift you ever have gotten, or ever will receive.
These are gifts that never wear out. Gifts that never come in the wrong
size or color. Gifts that you will never get tired off. Gifts you would
never consider returning or exchanging.
These gifts are
so precious that they bring you the greatest joy you’ll ever experience.
But the only catch is that the joy they bring you, only comes from giving
those gifts away as you serve God. The gifts I am talking about, the
gifts that bring us true fulfillment in life, are of course the gifts
of the Spirit.
As believers in
Jesus Christ, we must discover and exercise our spiritual gifts, if
we want to find out the purpose for why God brought us to this world.
Let me simplify it by saying that each of you have a gift that God wants
you to find and use! And when each of you find your gifts, and use them
for the glory of God, Satan had better watch out because you are going
to turn the world upside down!
In chapter 12,
Paul begins to tackle the questions about spiritual gifts. As we start
this study, I want you to be aware that spiritual gifts have been a
source of confusion to the church throughout the ages. Because of that,
I want you to listen carefully as we learn what the apostle Paul teaches
us about the gifts of the Spirit.
As we have been
studying this letter, I have pointed out that the church at Corinth,
which started out so well, was beginning to have some major problems.
And since Paul was the one who birthed this church, some of the members
had written to him about what was going on, seeking his counsel on how
to deal with the problems. So much of this letter is Paul’s response
to those who had contacted him.
Beginning in chapter
7, Paul starts to address these problems. And every time he addresses
a new problem, he starts off with the words, “Now concerning.”
Notice that the chapter we are beginning this morning starts of the
same way--v. 1.
For the next 84
verses, Paul is going to address the issue of the gifts of the Spirit.
He spends more time talking about the gifts of the Spirit then he does
any other topic in this letter. Do you think he is trying to say something
to us?
As I said earlier,
all the controversies that have hounded the modern church of Jesus Christ,
few have dealt a more deadly and damaging blow than this one over spiritual
gifts. More churches have split, even homes have been broken, over the
debate of the gifts of the Spirit. Which is sad because few subjects
are more important than the subject of spiritual gifts.
Most of us know
a little bit about the subject of the gifts of the Spirit. But let me
start off by saying that there is a difference between the gift, singular,
of the Spirit, and the gifts, plural, of the Spirit. The gift of the
Spirit is both the filling of the Holy Spirit, which occurs the moment
we invited Jesus Christ to come into our lives as Lord, and also what
we call the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That occurs when we ask God
for the power to serve him. And when the Holy Spirit beings to overflow
from within you, which is what the baptism of the Spirit is all about,
he gives you certain gifts to carry out certain ministries in the church
and in the world.
I brought this
up because Paul is talking about the manifestations of the gifts of
the Spirit, which are the result of being baptized with the Holy Spirit.
So right off the bat, Paul tells us that the gifts of the Spirit are
for all believers in Jesus Christ--v. 1.
I am just amazed
that as Paul begins this section, especially after his strong rebuke
for the way they were acting during the Lord’s Supper, that he
still calls them brethren. As I have said as we have studied Paul’s
letters, this is a term of endearment. A term he uses exclusively, as
a form of address, for his brothers & sisters in Christ. At times
he calls his fellow Jews his brothers, but he never addresses them as
his brother.
The way Paul uses
the word here, means that he is talking to people who are saved. If
you have made Jesus the Lord of your life, then you are one of Paul’s
brothers/sisters. And God’s concern for you this morning is for
you to discover your spiritual gifts, and to use them to build up the
church, and to bring glory to his name.
But if you haven’t
made Jesus the Lord of your life, then God’s concern right now
is not what spiritual gifts you have. At this moment you don’t
need to worry about finding out what gifts you have. Rather, your only
concern is discovering the gift of eternal life that God is offering
to you right now through the death & resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And I hope that you will discover that gift before you go home this
morning.
From this term
of endearment, we see that God never gives up on us, no matter what
we do. One of the great truths that Paul has taught us about God is
that he is faithful. And part of God’s faithfulness is not only
saving us, but keeping us saved while his Spirit is transforming us
so we will be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. This is known
as the process of sanctification.
The process of
sanctification is the process by which we sin less in this life. And
it is complete when we are sinless, which only happens we when we finally
get to heaven. The truth that Paul has taught us is that we are now
saved, and we are continually being saved, and when we finally get to
heaven, we will be eternally saved.
That doesn’t
mean we should abuse God’s grace by going out and sinning. For
while God never gives up on his, he will punish us, even through death,
when we sin. As much as I long to go home, I don’t want to the
reason God brings me home is because of some persistent sin I refuse
to confess and repent of.
Back to the subject
of spiritual gifts. Over the next 84 verses, Paul is going to teach
us how the Spirit has gifted the body of the Lord Jesus Christ with
many and varied gifts. But before he gets into the different kinds of
gifts, he tells us that he first wants to correct our misunderstandings
about spiritual gifts. He tells us, first of all, to: Pay attention
to the source of gifts--v. 1.
The Greek word for
“ignorant” is the word that we get our English word “agnostic”
from. An agnostic is someone who doesn’t believe in something until
they can prove it exists. And Paul doesn’t want us to have this
kind of attitude when it comes to spiritual manifestations.
The reason I use
the word spiritual manifestations, and not gifts, is because the word
gifts is italicized, which means it is not in the Greek manuscripts.
In keeping with the overall context of what Paul is talking about, the
word gifts is a logical conclusion. But it is possible that Paul is
talking about any spiritual manifestation that we might attribute to
the work of the Holy Spirit.
He doesn’t
want us to buy into every manifestation of spiritual gifts, and every
spiritual phenomena that comes down the Christian highway. When it comes
to spiritual manifestations, we act just like a baby. A baby will grab
anything within their reach and put it into their mouth not knowing,
or even caring, if this is something they should eat. The same is true
with many Christians. There seems to be a total lack of discernment
within the church of Jesus Christ when it comes to supernatural manifestations
& experiences. That is why Paul wants us to test the spirituals.
But neither does
Paul want us to avoid the manifestations of spiritual gifts, or shun
every new spiritual phenomena, just because we can’t scientifically
prove why they are happen. It may seem beyond all reason to believe
that someone can speak in a language they have never learned. It may
seem beyond all reason to pray for healing for someone who has been
diagnosed with terminal cancer.
I had one of the
leading cancer doctors of this town tell me that he hates it when Christians
pray for his patients who are dying of cancer. Despite the fact that
some of them have been healed. He dismisses the healings by saying they
will die of something else later on. While I don’t deny that unless
the rapture occurs that all of are going to die, but I will never not
pray for healing for someone. Even if that person is on death’s
doorstep.
I want to say categorically,
as a preface to everything that I will say about the gifts of the Spirit,
that God is still the God of miracles, and certain gifts did not die
with the apostles, or cease with the canonization of the Bible! Gifts
like healing, tongues, and even raising the dead, still occur. Therefore,
all the fellowships that are a part of the Calvary Chapel movement,
believe that all gifts of the Holy Spirit are available to the church
today. But at the same time, we all also believe we must oppose the
false & heretical teachings & practices of the gifts of the
Spirit. The tricky part about this is that we must be careful in doing
so that we do not become anti-supernatural in our doctrine or in practice.
At one of the pastor’s
conferences I went to, one of the speakers mentioned that even though
Calvary Chapels are very open to the moving of the Spirit, we are in
danger of being too cautious. He said that in our attempts to be biblically
right, that if we’re not careful, we might end up becoming dead
right. He cautioned us to not make that mistake.
He said that even
if we open up more to the moving of the Spirit, and some abuse this
freedom, we can use it as an opportunity to teach what the Bible has
to say. And that is the position I want us to take here at this church.
I don’t want us to negatively react to the abuse of the gifts,
by swinging to the opposite extreme, to the point that we become afraid
to mention the need to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. Or we shy away
from talking about experiencing the Spirit’s fullness, his power,
and his gifts.
Please notice however,
that Paul wants us to be able to discern what expressions of the Spirit
are from God--v. 1. It’s very interesting to note that Paul uses
the same Greek word for ignorant that he does when he tells us to not
let “Satan take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his
devices.” (2 Corinthians 2:11)
I want you to know
that Satan never bothers with things that are unimportant. He only counterfeits
those things that are valuable to the life of the church of Jesus Christ.
And of course, it’s obvious from what Paul will teach us that the
church needs spiritual gifts. So Satan will try to come in, and do great
damage, by counterfeiting the gifts which he knows will aid in our witness
of Jesus Christ to the lost in our world.
This is important to remember in light of what Paul talks about in verses
2 & 3. Paul reminds them that at one time they were swept away by
some demonic force that was able to produce ecstatic demonstrations
as they worshipped in the pagan temples--v. 2.
The words “led
astray” in the Greek, means to be led away by force. And the Greek
tense shows that this same force was the one who was constantly leading
them into spiritual expressions during the worship services they once
attended at the pagan temples. Though Paul doesn’t mention the
force by name, I think we can make a strong case that it was Satan.
Paul wants us to
see how the differnent influences of the world can affect our lifestyles.
If you’ve been a Christian for a while, you know that most of the
problems that we face in our Christian life are problems that we have
dragged with us from our old life into the new life in Christ. Things
that we’re holding onto and we don’t want to let go of.
Paul tells us here
that we’ve got to let go of these old relics of our sinful pagan
lives, because they will influence our new life in Christ. If we have
been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb we must start acting like we
are a new creation in Christ on a daily basis.
Let me give you
a bit of background of what happened during a worship service in the
pagan temples in Corinth. During the worship services, the people sought
after a spiritual experience that was simply called “ecstasy.”
The temple priests taught that ecstasy occurred when a person’s
spirit was taking into the presence of the god of that temple.
And during this ecstatic union, many spiritual expressions were manifested,
including speaking in, and the interpretation of an unknown tongue.
From what Paul
says here, it appears that after some came to faith in Christ they still
equated sensational experiences with spirituality. Some of the newer
Christians were going around making celebrities of those who displayed
some of the more spectacular gifts, like healings, miracles, and speaking
in tongues. But the less dramatic gifts, like helps & mercy, were
disregarded, and those who had them were given lower status.
What appears to
have happened in Corinth is that their worship was more motivated by
their emotions than by the truth of God’s word. Now, there’s
nothing wrong with becoming emotional in our worship of God, but our
emotions must be governed by the Spirit and His word. Remember, we worship
the Lord in Spirit and in truth.
And, so as these
Corinthians became Christians, they brought with them their former ways
of worship. Which meant that as they started to worship the Lord they
continued to rely more on their emotions then they were on the truth.
Emotions can be very deceiving. Emotions are not meant to control our
lives or our worship. For when we let our emotions control our minds,
eventually we will let demonic spirits will control our lives.
It seems that in
the church of Corinth, as in our church today, many were looking for
some kind of spiritual high, some kind emotional connection with God,
but without any concern for truth. Because of this, many in the church
find it difficult to discern what is truly of the Holy Spirit. And since
we want to believe that God is able to do miraculous things, we’re
almost afraid to say anything about what cannot obviously be of God.
I have had people
tell me, “Look at how God is blessing their ministry!” Too
many Christians equate success by the numbers of people who attend a
church, or by how many people are healed or delivered at someone’s
crusade. I have a hard time saying that it is God who is doing the blessing,
when the people are doing, or teaching, unbiblical things. If numbers
were a sign of God’s blessing, then we have to say that Mormons
& Jehovah Witnesses are true Christians. So let’s don’t
look only at the size of the crowd, or how spectacular a show a person
puts on, to be the proof that what they are doing has to be a true manifestation
of the Spirit!
Thankfully, Paul
tells us that there are 2 ways that we can use to discern what gifts,
and what expressions are of the Spirit. He gives us a simple, but crucial
test to discern the source of the gifts, to see whether or not they
are from God. He tells us to examine the words of the person’s
mouth, and the content of the person’s life, more than the excitement
of his/her ministry--v. 3.
First, he tells
us to examine the words that come out of the person’s mouth. The
word “anathema” simply means “accursed” No one can
say something contrary to the nature of Jesus if he has the Spirit of
God within him. During their worship service, some of the people in
Corinth would get themselves into such a spiritual frenzy, that they
couldn’t even discern when someone was doing something, or saying
something that was obviously an error.
You might be thinking
how is that possible? Spiritual errors occur whenever men and women
lay aside the Word of God for their own experiences or revelations.
For some people, as long as the person claims he’s a Christian,
or he can quote a lot of verses, or he can speak in tongues, that’s
all that matters! Just like in those days, we are afraid to test the
spirits, even if someone says or does something that we know is contrary
to the nature of Jesus Christ!
To understand what
Paul was dealing with, let me tell you of what was going on in those
days. During the first century the early church was fighting against
many heresies. One was known as Gnosticism.
Gnosticism taught
that everything physical was evil, but the spiritual realm was good.
And as they took that into Christianity, they split the person of Christ
into two: the man Jesus, and the spiritual Christ. They were going around
teaching that the spiritual Christ, the Son of God, is good. But Jesus,
the son of man, is evil.
And as Gnosticism
started to grow, those who believed in it, in their zeal to worship
correctly, they made it their mission to correct the teachings about
the duel nature of Jesus Christ. Instead of embracing the truth that
Jesus is fully man and fully God, they were teaching that there is the
“man” Jesus and the “spiritual” Christ. To the point
that they would stand up during a worship service and actually say,
possibly either though some kind of prophetic utterance, or even through
an interpretation of a tongue, that Jesus was two distinct & divisible
persons. The prophetic utterance, or the interpretation of the tongue,
may have stated that the man part of Jesus is to be cursed, but the
God part of Jesus is to be praised. And this teaching really became
popular when they used as a proof text, Galatians 3:14, which says,
“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become
a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs
on a tree.’”
But as Paul says,
the Spirit of God always declares the truth about Jesus. What Paul tells
us here is so elementary and so simple, but it is of the utmost importance!
I believe that the essence of what Paul says is: Don’t you listen
to anyone, no matter who they are or what they claim, if what they say
or do, in any way is contrary to the true nature of God.
Now, we might think
that this could never happen in the church today, but you would be wrong.
There are many misguided Christians who would never curse Jesus, and
yet they will allow anything, or believe every word that comes out of
someone’s mouth, simply because that person can do great miracles.
We, like the Corinthians, will buy into anything as long at it occurs
in a moment of spiritual ecstasy.
I know I’m
going to get myself in hot water in what I’m about to say, but
again, if you disagree with me, that’s okay. And if you want to
talk to me, I’ll be glad to sit down with you. With that as a warning,
let me address some of the issues that have caused me great concern
over the past years.
I have watched
with great interest recent manifestations, such as “Holy laughter,”
and the “Toronto Blessing,” to try to discern whether these
are true manifestations of the Holy Spirit. It’s not that I don’t
think the Holy Spirit can do such things, but I can’t help but
wonder why he would? Do we ever see God manifesting his power in such
ways anywhere in the Bible? Were these manifestations as part of Jesus’
earthly ministry? Did the Spirit manifest any of these phenomena through
any of the apostles during the beginning of the church? Are any of these
manifestations taught anywhere in the New Testament? If so, please show
me!
I know that in
many of today Christian circles, that if you speak out against such
things you are branded as trying to put God in a box. But I believe
that practices such as these blatantly contradict the clear teaching
of the Spirit, found in the Word of God. And I also believe that to
embrace them, or even to not speak out against them, is to ignore what
Paul has taught us. He would say that no one who claims to be able to
miraculous things by the Spirit of God, would ever say, or do anything
that would contradict the true, revealed nature of God.
Yet, there many
people in the charismanic movement that say and do such things. While
we shouldn’t take one statement a person makes and brand them as
a heretic. For I know how easy it is to say something that doesn’t
come out the way you meant it. But at the same time, if after they are
challenged by what they said, and they don’t make any public corrections,
I believe we ought to be careful about following those people.
For instance, I
personally have a hard time with Benny Hinn. It breaks my heart to watch
him flamboyantly walk back & forth across the platform, swatting
at people with his hand, and having them fall over, rather having them
flung backwards as though Jackie Chan had just kick-boxed them, to the
floor. My thoughts are not how great this is, but rather, is this a
hoax? We don’t see Jesus, or any of the apostles doing anything
like Benny does. So why do we automatically assume, that despite the
bizarre & unbiblical practices he does, that he is able to do them
by the power of God? What he is doing is supernatural, but I’m
not ready to concede that it is being done by the power of the Holy
Spirit!
Benny Hinn, by
the way, also has some unorthodox theological beliefs. Several years
ago, a group of leading evangelicals challenged him publicly to get
him to conform to biblical truths. While he did change some of his beliefs,
for the most part he still holds to some of the same false beliefs.
Please don’t
think that I’m trying to say that people like Benny Hinn aren’t
saved. Only God knows what’s in their heart. Yet, I also believe
it is my job to exhort you to use some discernment towards those whose
ministries, or teachings, aren’t in line with the teachings &
the practices of the Bible. Even John says “Beloved, believe not
every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many
false prophets are gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1) I also
believe it is my job to expose false teachers so you won’t be misled
by them. The writer of Hebrews tells us that one of the duties of a
pastor is that he is to “Keep watch over you.” (Hebrews 13:17)
That is why I constantly
tell you to be careful of those who teach that God wants every one of
his children to walk in perfect health, and in complete prosperity.
While it is true that God can heal us, and he will honor his tithe,
the complete fulfillment of those benefits will only occur when we are
in heaven. All we can claim right now is that God will meet our needs
& not our wants, and that he will gives us the desires of our heart
as long as our desires are in line with his sovereign will for our lives.
C.S. Lewis, in
his work “The Problem of Pain,” captures the essence of what’s
in our heart, that causes us to drift towards the health & wealth
teachers, when he said what many people say about God’s goodness:
“If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly
happy, and if God were almighty, He would be able to do what He wished.
But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness,
or power, or both.” Since none of us want people to believe that
about God, we would rather teach that God is like a celestial Santa
Claus, who wants to pour out blessings after blessings on his people
to keep them happy. Through the rest of the work, Lewis does an excellent
job of dispelling this kind of flawed logic. And he helps us see the
true nature of God. Because God is good, and God is great, he blesses
us, not with happiness, which is always circumstantial, but with joy.
And joy, is a by-product of our relationship with God.
Paul also says
to look at the content of the person’s life--v. 3(b). Does the
content of a person’s life reflect the lordship of Jesus? Now,
he’s not referring to whether a person can just voice the words,
but whether the words are from the heart. Jesus himself said: “Many
will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in
Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform
many miracles? And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you;
depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:22-23)
Based on what Jesus
said, to affirm that Jesus is your Lord means more than the ability
to do miraculous things. Rather, it means your talk matches your walk.
When you say that Jesus is my Lord, you are saying that he has sovereign
authority over your life.
How does this relate
to the gifts of the Spirit? I believe the litmus test for all manifestations
of the gifts, and all movings of the Spirit, is the character of the
person. We need to make sure that the person is consistently living
a moral & ethical life, both in private & in public, that matches
up with how a Spirit-filled person ought to live. I don’t care
how great a communicator, or many great miracles a person can do, or
how enthusiastic someone is, if there is consistent flaws in their life,
don’t trust them. And the only way to know what they are like is
to discover what they are like when they think no one is watching. Which,
by the way, is the definition of integrity.
If a person is
claiming that Jesus is their lord, then the way they live their private
lives ought to reflect that relationship. A person who is under the
lordship of Jesus Christ would never engage in anything that would bring
about their financial fortune through devious escapades done in the
name of Jesus Christ. Nor would those who are truly following after
Jesus Christ, make merchandise out of the people of God. This is why
it breaks my heart to watch the TV preachers beg for money, then to
find out they are using the money to promote an extravagant lifestyle.
This is why it breaks my heart to hear of some prominent minister involved
in sexual immorality.
Brothers &
sisters, one of the greatest truths that Pastor Chuck Smith taught me
is to be careful about people who major on the gifts of the Spirit.
He said that they are using hyper-spirituality to cover an inward carnality.
And so far, this truth has proven to be true.
So I want to encourage
you to follow after those teachers who exalt the Lord Jesus Christ,
more than they do the gifts of the Spirit. As exciting as the gifts
are, only Jesus Christ is worthy to be exalted! And the Holy Spirit
is never going to do anything that would bring attention unto his gifts,
or the one through whom the gifts are being manifested.
Let me close by
pointing out the fact that the word “Lord,” in connection
with the lordship of Jesus Christ, is mentioned over 700 times in the
New Testament. And that the term “Savior” is mentioned only
23 times. God makes it perfectly clear that Jesus has to be your Lord
before you can call him your Savior!
If Jesus doesn’t
have absolute authority over your heart and your life it is possible
that he is not your Savior as well. Please don’t go home today
without the certainty of knowing that if you were to die today, that
you would safely spend the rest of eternity in the presence of Jesus.
If you want Jesus to be your Savior, then right now invite him into
your life as your Lord!
Let’s
pray
RETURN
TO 1 CORINTHIANS SERIES INDEX
