2. Gifts of the Spirit, Part 1

"Now concerning Spiritual Gifts brethren, I do not want you to be unaware or ignorant" I Corinthians 12:1

A desperately needed word today because few things or subjects are surrounded by as much ignorance and bad (and incomplete) teaching as the subject of the Holy Spirit, His gifts, and His fruit.  In fact, its tragic to see that entire churches, denominations, families, long-term friendships have been fractured and split over disagreement centering around the third Person of the Trinity that the scripture tells us - in no uncertain terms - was given to demonstrate and to build up the unity of the body.  And to me it is a tragedy that Satan has been able to use what was given to develop and build up the unity of the body of Christ, instead to fragment it and to divide it, and to create within that body of Christ all all kinds of non-Christian attitudes toward one another.

The Holy Spirit was given, the scripture says, to build up the unity of the body so that we become no longer like children driven to and fro by every wind of doctrine.  And in the hands of well-meaning but ignorant men, the opposite has taken place.  And as a result there are many today who are ignorant and who want to stay that way.  And there are many people who would just as soon not get into this subject.  I don't know how many of you have warned me as we have progressed toward this direction, toward the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but you're going to get in thin water - you're going to get in trouble and I have told you that there are some of you who aren't going to be happy with me from week to week.  Others of you will be very happy.  And I don't know which ones I'm going to be happiest about myself.  Because there is so much confusion in this area and so often we have taken that which is our experience and argued from experience to theology and that is always a dangerous kind of thing.  Its like "I have a certain experience and so then I look at scripture and I go through it until I find something that can be taken and applied to my experience".  No!  What we must do is we place our experience under the judgment of scripture.  It is solely scripture.  The result is that a lot of people are ignorant and don't want to become aware and other people are ignorant and think everybody else is.  And the more I study this subject, the more aware I am of how great my own ignorance is.

Not too long ago, a group of international Christian leaders were together for a conference and one of the men who was present said that at that time he suggested that as a devotional exercise before they actually began the conference, they go around in a circle with about 25 of these international Christian big shots, and share a verbal word of praise for a gift the Holy Spirit had given to enrich the church.  And they made statements like this: 
o "Lord, we praise You for the gift of our loved ones." 
o "Lord, we praise You for our children."  
o "Lord, we praise You for Billy Graham." 
o "Lord, we praise you for Jesus Christ." 
o "Lord, we praise You for the privilege of preaching the gospel." 
o "Lord, we praise You for our brothers and sisters in Christ." 
Etc., etc.

Less than 25% of those present were able to respond in an intelligent and articulate way to the specific request that they share praise for a spiritual gift.  Now all of the things they referred to were, indeed, gifts.  But they were not under the category or qualification that the leader had requested.  And if this is true among Christian leaders, how much more is it true among grass roots?

Let me illustrate two opposite reactions to one of the gifts.  One of the most controversial gifts, and that is the gift of tongues. A young lady who was a new Christian - had only been a Christian for about six to eight months - was interviewing for a job with a Christian organization.  She was asked, among other things, "how do you feel about tongues?"

And her response was to look a little confused and say, "Um, what do you mean?"

And they say, "Well, how do you feel about speaking in tongues?"

She said, "I'm not sure I know what you're talking about."

And so one of those who was interviewing her explained what had taken place in Acts chapter 2 and said that “they spoke with unknown languages, or languages they had not learned"

And she interrupted the person who was explaining it, "well, if its in the Bible, I've learned one thing in the eight or nine months I've been a Christian, and this is: if its in the Book, you can pretty well rely on it."

And they said, "now what a minute.  We have a policy that no one will serve on staff with this organization unless they sign a pledge promising they will not speak in tongues."

And she said, "But I don't understand.  If its in the Book..." and that ended the interview.

Now on the other side, I am aware of a Christian brother who has a tremendous gift of teaching.  The Holy Spirit has gifted his mind with a kind of insight and wonder that just causes him to be able to take the scriptures and they just open like a flower opening to the sun.  His gift of teaching was recognized by a group of people that are called "Charismatics" (and we'll get into that definition after a while, because that's really a misnomer) - but people who are very much interested in the tongues gift, and they recognized this man's gift of teaching and he began to teach and it grew and grew and grew and men and women were coming to know Christ and people were growing spiritually and they had to keep getting larger and larger places for them to meet as this man exercised the gift of the Holy Spirit.  And then word got out that this man had never spoken in tongues.  And this sponsoring group believes that tongues is the sign gift of the entry and baptism of the Holy Spirit - without tongues, you don't have the Holy Spirit - and therefore they withdrew support, closed down the meetings, and hundreds of people were left without the insight and blessing of this man's gift.

Now, those are two illustrations of what can only be determined and called ignorance.  And Paul says, "moreover brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant concerning the spirituals."  I Corinthians 12 begins a new section of that book.  Its really a kind of turning point.  The first eleven chapters, the apostle Paul has been dealing with what are called "carnalities".  He is talking about the fleshly nature of that church.  He has talked about the non-spiritual aspect of many within the church of Corinth.  He says in the 3rd chapter, for instance, in the 1st verse, "And I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as to carnal - even as unto babes in Christ."  Corinth was a fleshly church, it was a carnal church.  You've heard me say many times, "of all the churches I know of, that's the one I'd probably least liked to have served."  They had more problems than they could begin to deal with.  And so in the first part, the first eleven chapters, Paul deals with their carnality.  He talks about their wranglings and their divisions between themselves.  He talks about their gossiping and he deals with their sexual sins and their abuse of their freedom in Christ.  And their taking each other to lawsuit in court and their awful abuse of the Lord's supper and the love feast.  That was the condition of the church at Corinth.  Now, mind you, it is also the condition of the church that prided itself on possessing every spiritual gift.  Now hear me.  This church that was characterized by suits against one another, by immorality, by drunkenness at the Lord's table, by party spirits and divisions and all the rest also prided itself on having all spiritual gifts operative within its body.  Therefore, Godliness and giftedness are not synonymous.

And when Paul writes in the first eleven chapters of the book of I Corinthians, he is saying, "this is what you are in the church: you are carnal.  Now I don't want you to be ignorant about the spirituals."  So, starting in chapter 12, he is going to deal with, not the carnalities which he's dealt with, but with the spirituals.  If you look in your translation, it probably says "Now, I do not want you to be ignorant concerning spiritual gifts" or something of that nature.  And the word "gifts" should be, if its not, in italics.  Because, what it means is that's not in the original - that's not in the Greek.  That's the implication. But I think the implication is much more clear if you leave out the word "gift" because that simply confuses it.  The word is not "charismata", the word is the same word that we get from "pneumatic tires": "pnuematikos", which means "Spirit-filled", "air filled", "Spirit breathed".  And so it is that we have got to recognize Paul is contrasting the old carnal nature with the spiritual nature; the carnality of the Corinthian church with the spiritualities that he calls for.  And therefore, he is saying "you can have the gifts, and Corinth did, he says in the first chapter, "you have gifts in abundance, and all of them", but not be a spiritual church.

So if somebody asks me "do I want every gift operative in this church?" I'd say, "yes, dear God, I do.  But I would rather have a Godly church than a gifted church, if I had a choice."  But I believe that if we are Godly then God's gifts operate in the proper perspective where they belong.  And they will cause the church to be accomplished what God intended them to do.

You notice in verse 1 the word is "pneumaticos" or "spiritualities".  Chapters 1 through 11 is about their carnalities.  Starting in chapter 12 he talks about spiritualities.  Now he's not talking about the gifts, per se.  They are a part of it.  But when he talks about the spiritualities, he talks about the unity of the body of Christ.  And that's the whole motivation of chapter 12.  It is the unity of the body.  Secondly, he is talking to them about the fruits of the Spirit, the central of which is love.  A third spiritual that he deals with, and this church was so carnal he had to go way back to the very foundation and teach them the gospel all over again.  And so in chapter 15, he deals with them about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  And then he deals with the Christians' triumph in Christ.  These are the spiritualities that he wants to share with them.  And you can see by reading chapters 1 through 11 that ignorance of these spiritualities is not bliss.  Not in the life of any individual, nor in the life of the church.  And so he says in the second and third verse, "you know that when you were heathen, you were led astray to dumb idols, however you may have been moved.  Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaketh by the Spirit of God ever says 'Jesus be cursed.'  and no one can say 'Jesus is Lord', except by the Holy Spirit."  Now Paul is here reminding them of that out from which they have been saved.

He says, "you know that you were heathen, how you were led astray to dumb idols no matter how you were moved" and there are two words that he uses here that I believe are very helpful in helping us to understand how we can test the genuine from the counterfeit when it comes to the movements of the Spirit.  The one word is "moved".  He says, "you were led astray to dumb idols however you may be been MOVED" and the Greek in the word "moved" gives the clear and unmistakable impression of being "carried along".  It means "lack of volitional control".  It means "compulsive behavior". The Holy Spirit is utterly different than that.  He never forces.  He never compels.  He never violates the human personality. And that's why I find myself in strong disagreement with those who interpret the scriptures where the word "tongues" is used and refer to it in interpretation "ecstatic utterances", because the words "ecstatic utterance" carries with it the connotation of being "carried along" or being "out of control" and being "lacking in my own volitional control".  And the Holy Spirit never does.  "The spirits are subject".  The second word is the word "speaking".  Notice he goes on down and says "therefore, I want you to understand that no one SPEAKING by the Spirit of God...".  Now that implies full control. You see the Holy Spirit's primary concern is not to produce spiritual excitement, but the Holy Spirit's concern is to produce spiritual growth, development, and to bring glory to Jesus Christ.

Now a second test is not only the nature of the gift itself - whether it moves us or whether we have the control - but the second test concerns the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Now don't understand this phrase "no man can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Spirit of God" to say that anybody that just gives the words "Jesus is Lord" therefore is a Christian.  I've had people say that: "well, you know Pastor, this person says 'Jesus is Lord'.  What are you going to do?  You just have to believe them."  Baloney!  "By your fruit you shall know them" and I don't care how much they talk unless its demonstrated in their life.  And the scripture that is quoted here, in the second and third verse which says, "therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says 'Jesus be cursed' and no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" really carries with it the connotation "no man can say and live under the Lordship of Christ except by the Spirit." It is not simply a verbalization.  There is no room for verbal theology in scripture, because to say and to be are the same things.  So the second test of genuine or counterfeit is "what about the Lordship of Jesus Christ?" That church at Corinth had every gift there was in the Book.  They prided themselves so much on it that they were even dividing the church over the gifts.  But they did not demonstrate Lordship of Christ in their life.  They were building up themselves - or their own little religious party.  They were tearing down and dividing the body of Christ which the Holy Spirit was given in order to unify and to build up.  And Paul doesn't want us to be ignorant of the facts concerning the spirituals.  Now let me move on.

There are basically four reasons that I want to touch on today why it is important for us to know what the gifts of the Holy Spirit are, and what our own gifts are.  First of all, its important because it will enable us to be what God wants us to be. You see, to know that God Himself has equipped you with the unique pattern of Spiritual life and gifts.  And to know that He has placed you where you are in order to minister those gifts, is to enter a new dimension of exciting possibilities, where you have the confidence that you are in partnership with God and with other parts of the body for the building up of the whole.  And it gives you a handle on your spiritual job description and it relieves the frustration of trying to DO in your own strength.  And if frees you to operate in the ministry of the Holy Spirit's power.  Listen, brothers and sisters, it will do away with that crippling inferiority complex that so many of you struggle with.  There is no room in the body of Christ for an inferiority complex.  Well, you see we are so frequently wrapped up in guilt comparisons that we get all tied up in inferiority.

Let me give you an illustration.  Say a lady, by the name of Betty, loves to entertain.  You can hardly answer the phone when Betty calls without getting invited over for a cup of coffee or something.  She sees you at church - she wants you to drop over sometime.  There's always people coming and going in her house.  Just easy.  She's the kind of a lady who, if you walk in and there's a pile of clothes in the corner, she says "don't pay any attention to the clothes," and she throws them in the other corner, out of sight.  It doesn't shake her up.  But then along comes the Sunday School superintendent or the pastor and they say, "Betty, we'd like you to teach" and Betty breaks into a cold sweat.  She tries.  Believe me, she tries.  But she goes into almost coronary arrest every time she faces what, to her, is that formidable rank of third and fourth graders.  She is just absolutely terrified by these youngsters.  And you give her older people and that's no better.  They scare her too.  But because she feels its every Christian's job to teach, she's going to try her best to teach.

Now Mary, on the other hand, loves to teach.  She can't see two kids walk past her house, or the paper boy collect for the paper, without her trying to give him some good little bit.  She just is continually gathering around herself youngsters and older people.  She loves to share what God has taught her.  She has the chance to teach.  Oh, she takes it seriously.  She works on that lesson.  She loves to prepare that little handwork and all the rest for her class.  She's so excited about.  She thinks that light of recognition and understanding in a child's eye when they understand a Biblical concept cannot be compared with any joy on Earth.  And then somebody comes to Mary and says, "Now, Mary, its nice that you teach, but we really want you to entertain visiting missionaries for the rest of the year."  And she panics, because Mary's incapable of entertaining without having a panic.  She can't have somebody in for coffee without cleaning the garage.  She's afraid they'll accidentally look into that closet and so she's got to clean the whole house to have them in the living room for ten minutes.

Now what's happening here?  What's happening here is that Betty, who has the gift of hospitality, is being forced into teaching.  And Mary, who has the gift of teaching, is being forced into hospitality.  And boy do they feel inferior!  When, instead, they ought to be able to relax and rejoice because knowing their gift is a gift of teaching, or their gift is a gift of hospitality, or any gift mix (and we'll get into that in a few weeks), they zestfully get into their teaching or into their hospitality free of guilt and free of jealousy, because they are able to thank and praise God, not only for their own gifts, but for each others', and how well they fit together.  You need to know what God's gifts to you have been.  In order that you might be set free from that crippling inferiority that thinks "I'm not as good as somebody else."  No matter what your gift is, you are important to God, because you are a part of the body of Christ.  And the scripture says, "because I am not the eye, I am not a part of the body" does not make it any less a part of the body.  That kind of false humility is stimulated by ignorance.  Remember what Romans 12 said, which pastor Steve read? "I say to every man among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment."  That means, take a good hard, realistic look at who you are and what God has given you, and use that.  "Not to think more highly than he ought to think, but to think so has to have sound judgment as God has allotted to each a measure of faith."  And all this thinking soberly should lead one who knows his gift away from pride in that gift all the way to thankfulness and joy at just being able to use it in His service.

Second, to know your gifts will enable the church to be what God wants it to be.  Now listen: we have got to remember the consistent Biblical figure for the church is the BODY.  Hermenutics is a fancy word which really means "principles of interpretation", and if you understand the principle of the body, you understand the whole hermenutical key to an understanding of this scripture.  Now how tough is that?  Well, you don't need to be very sophisticated.  For instance, if you realize that you cannot pick up an object with your ear, or smell with your eye, or see with your nose, then you understand the hermenutical principle.  Its not a very sophisticated one, really.  It simply means that every part of the body is created for its function and that's where it functions.  And outside of that functioning cannot really do much good.  Now, if you understand that - that each member of the body has a different function - that the whole body is made up of many different parts - then you will understand that the body's members are designed to do their task and no more.  But together they form the whole.  And that's the hermenutical principle.  Since we're part of one body, its vital that we know each other, that care about each other, and that we function as we are, for the health of the whole body.  In Ephesians chapter 4, which is another one of the gift chapters in scripture, it says that when all gifts are in operation, the whole body matures - it becomes a perfect man, no more like children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.  It grows, and it matures.  The need to compete is eliminated.

You know, back in the old days, when the pipe organs were run by bellows, they used to have all of the congregation's hyper-kinetic kids run the bellows.  And they would get back in behind these little curtains and they would pump on these bellows so there'd be plenty of air going through the organ.  And I read about an organist in those days who gave a great concert - no, it was terrific - and when he got done, everybody came up to the console of the organ and were complimenting him on the great power and majestic with which he played the instrument.  And after about ten or fifteen minutes of praise being lauded on this organist, this sweaty, dirty little kid stuck his head out from under a curtain back there where he had been pumping the bellows all the time, and he says, "we did a pretty good job, didn't we?"  And the organist turned to him and said, "who are you anyway?  I am the artist at the keyboard!", and you can predict the result.  The next concert comes a month later and calls for an enormous amount of wind as the organist approaches this very stormy passage, and just as he signals for more wind, the organ starts to die.  And he signals frantically for more wind and finally the curtain comes aside and this sweaty little kid looks out and says, "Now shall we say 'we'?"  You see, the body of Christ functions very much like that.  There are those who are back there, behind the curtains, pumping the bellows.  And there are those who are up front.  But it is to the glory of GOD - not the the glory of any individual.  The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to His glory for the building up of the whole body - not for the glorification or the lauding of any particular part of His body.

Third, I believe that the Holy Spirit would desire us to know His gifts in order that we might bring the glory to God.  I Peter 4 says, "as each one has received a spiritual gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards to the manifold grace of God so that in all things Christ may be glorified.  That God may be glorified."  You see, the ministry of the body is the ministry of Christ.  He loves the world and the men and women in it - the homeless and the derelicts and the addicts and the outcasts and the driven and the driver.  He loves them all, the success and the failure.  And He loves them and wants to reach them, but He cannot reach them except through His body. And that's why He's equipped it with gifts and filled it with His life to the glory of God.

And then there's one more reason, and that is: it is important to know our gifts because we are held accountable for their use.  I Peter 4 again says, "As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards." I Corinthians 4:2 says, "It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful."  Every spiritual gift we have is a resource we must use, and for which we are accountable.  In Matthew 25, Christ tells the parable about the three stewards who were given a different amount of gold.  One was given one talent, another two talents, and another five talents.  And the significant thing about that whole parable was not the number of talents of gold that they had, but how good of stewards they were with what they possessed.  And the message of that parable that Christ gave is unmistakably clear: "to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required".  Tragically some people have been called to be His stewards and they will not hear His words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant", because they have been ignorant and buried, or chosen to ignore, their spiritual gifts.  I think its important to know.  Now let me lay down, once again, some principles.  Next week we want to look, Lord willing, at the subject of "what are the gifts" and the contrast between the gifts and the fruit, because we've got to clearly define what we are talking about before we get going.  Remember this principle: the gifts are to be used corporately. Private callings are not scriptural.  The gifts are for the benefit of the body.  Secondly, remember that when you are speaking concerning the gifts, you are not talking about that which the Holy Spirit has given to "turn on" individual Christians.  Its not some sort of a kick He's got promised us.  It is to build up the total body to maturity and to His glory.  And nothing represents maturity less than some of the bickering and squabbling that you see in the church scene today between people who say "we got it and you ain't got it."  Now that's not maturity, that's childish.  And its childish because it is in disobedience to the context.  The giving of gifts are always for the purpose of the building up of the body - the edification of the body.  And the context of the gift is always unity.  Always!  Love is the controlling attitude for the proper use of the gifts.  Now I trust, by God's grace, that as we work our way through in the next few weeks, this whole area of subject we will not be ignorant of the spirituals but we will learn together what God has for us in His word.