|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor May 26,
2002 Now
about spiritual gifts, brothers,
I do not want you to be ignorant.
You know that when you were
pagans, somehow or other you were
influenced and led astray to mute
idols. Therefore I tell you that
no one who is speaking by the
Spirit of God says, "Jesus be
cursed," and no one can say,
"Jesus is Lord," except by the
Holy Spirit. There
are different kinds of gifts, but
the same Spirit. There are
different kinds of service, but
the same Lord. There are
different kinds of working, but
the same God works all of them in
all men. Now
to each one the manifestation of
the Spirit is given for the
common good. To one there is
given through the Spirit the
message of wisdom, to another the
message of knowledge by means of
the same Spirit, to another faith
by the same Spirit, to another
gifts of healing by that one
Spirit, to another miraculous
powers, to another prophecy, to
another distinguishing between
spirits, to another speaking in
different kinds of tongues, and
to still another the
interpretation of tongues. All
these are the work of one and the
same Spirit, and he gives them to
each one, just as he
determines. (1 Corinthians
12:1-11) You've
heard it said that "ignorance is
bliss" and "what you don't know
can't hurt you." Nothing could be
further from the truth in the
area of spiritual gifts. In fact,
Paul says that he doesn't want us
"to be ignorant" about spiritual
gifts, which implies that we need
to apply ourselves to studying
and understanding them. 1-Introduction
to
Spiritual
Gifts 2-The
Enabling
Gifts
of the
Holy
Spirit 4-The
Gifts
of
Tongues
and
Interpretation
of
Tongues 8-The
Gifts
of
Knowledge,
Wisdom,
and
Faith This
kind of thinking is rooted in the
fact that spiritual gifts have
been a source of controversy and
division in the church.
"Therefore, it's better to avoid
them," the argument goes. If you
study church history, you'll
discover that this attitude
developed during a time when the
church enjoyed high levels of
prestige and influence in the
culture. It was a time when the
church was fairly effective just
doing what it could do in its own
power and with its own temporal
resources. The
situation has changed now --
almost reversed in fact. The
church in America is often
scorned by our culture, it has
become largely ineffective, and
it has been declining in most
quarters for some
time. But
here's the good news: the church,
recognizing its own weakness, is
again starting to look to God for
the power it needs to do the real
and lasting work of the Kingdom.
I'm seeing considerably more
openness to spiritual phenomena
now than when I became a pastor
17 years ago. I thank God for
that. Yet
there's still is a great deal of
ignorance in the church
concerning spiritual gifts,
ignorance that must be overcome
if we're to become the kind of
church Jesus intended. Today's
text, from 1 Corinthians 12, is
part of a discourse on worship
that spans chapters 11, 12, 13,
14. The Apostle Paul is
addressing problems in the church
at Corinth that have resulted in
division and disunity. Among
those problems are wrong
attitudes toward -- and the
improper use of -- spiritual
gifts. Paul
is quite clear that ignorance
isn't
bliss. What we don't know about
spiritual gifts
can
hurt us. Indeed, ignorance of
spiritual things can cripple the
church and render her ineffective
in the work God has called her to
do. What
are spiritual gifts? If you look
at 1 Corinthians 12:1 in the King
James Version, the New King
James, or the New American
Standard Bible, you'll see that
that the translators have put
word "gifts" in italics. What the
means is that there's no
corresponding word in the
original Greek text. The word
"gifts" has been added by the
translators in an attempt to make
the verse more understandable for
English readers. A
literal rending of the Greek text
would read this way: "Now
concerning spirituals, brethren,
I do not wish you to be
ignorant." I recognize the reason
for adding the word "gifts" and
I'm not criticizing it, but it
has created an unfortunate
result: We have come to think of
a "spiritual gift" as a gift from
God to us
individually. We
tend to think, "God has given me
this or that gift; it is mine."
Then pride gets involved and we
begin to brandish our "gifts"
like spiritual merit badges. This
is not the way God intended for
us to understand spiritual gifts,
nor is it what the translators
intended by adding the word
gift. Examining
some other biblical texts will
help us look at spiritual gifts
from the right perspective.
First, let's go to Luke
11:13: And
look at Acts 2:38-39: Both
these texts use the word "gift"
with regard to the Holy Spirit
Himself. The more I have studied
this, the more I have become
convinced that our "gift" is the
Holy Spirit Himself -- not the
specific things the Spirit might
do through us. What
we generally think of spiritual
gifts are not gifts to us at all.
They are gifts given
through
us to the church or to specific
individuals to whom they are
directed. If I exercise a
spiritual gift, it is not "my"
gift. I am simply the delivery
person delivering that gift to
the church, or to a specific
individual. What
we often call the "gifts" of the
Spirit would be better understood
as spiritual "enablements" which
equip Christian men and women for
service in the Kingdom of God
through the church. They empower
us to do the work of the
church. Understanding
spiritual gifts this way leads us
to several conclusions that I've
summarized in this PowerPoint
slide: We
also need to understand that the
manifestation of spiritual gifts
was never meant to be the
identifying mark of a Christian.
In fact, Jesus told us how to
tell a true Christian in Matthew
7:16-20: We
are not known by our gifts, but
by our fruit. The
Scriptures use this word "fruit"
in two ways, in regard to the
believer. First, there is the
fruit
of one's personal
life. Think
of it this way: Fruit is that
which is produced by the inherent
energy of a living organism. It
is the inherent energy of apple
tree, for example, that produces
apples. The fruit is the visible
expression of power working
inwardly and
invisibly. Now,
we're not apple trees. We are
followers of Jesus Christ. And if
we are empowered by the His
Spirit, our visible life should
reflect the character of God
Himself. This
fruit of one's personal life is
specifically identified in
Galatians 5:22-23. Here what it
says: The
second of kind of fruit the Bible
talks about is the
fruit
of
ministry.
Listen to what Jesus told the
disciples in John
15:16: If
all Jesus meant by that was His
disciples should manifest the
fruit of the Spirit in their
personal lives, we would not be
here today! In this context,
"fruit" refers to the production
of new Christians -- that through
our lives and witness others will
come to know Jesus Christ as
Savior and Lord. So
"fruit" has to do with our
character
and with
spiritual
reproduction.
"Gifts" -- that is, enablements
-- have to do with our
calling
or
function in the Body of
Christ. Another
reason that we shouldn't look at
gifts as sign of spiritual
maturity is that gifts can be
counterfeited. Satan can produce
counterfeit manifestations. That
is evident all through the
Scriptures. An obvious example is
the magicians in Egypt. They
matched many of the miracles
Moses did, but their source of
power wasn't from God. So
while we should be open to the
gifts that the Holy Spirit, we
also need to understand that they
can be misused or counterfeited.
And we should not use power or
spiritual gifts as the measure of
Christian faith or
maturity. Now,
go back to 1 Corinthians 12. Paul
tells us here that there are
different kinds of gifts,
different kinds of service, and
different kinds of working -- but
all of these are from the same
Holy Spirit. To understand what
Paul is getting at, we need to do
a quick study of the Greek words
he uses. The
word translated "gifts" -- and
this "gifts"
is
in the original text -- is
charisma. The root word is
charis, which means
"grace." Charisma has to
do with the manifestation or
movement of God's
grace. One
last point to close these
introductory comments: Spiritual
gifts aren't the same as talents.
All persons have natural
aptitudes and abilities -- and
these, too, are gifts of God. But
they are gifts by the act of
creation, or you could say gifts
by birth. These are aptitudes and
abilities that can function in
one's life independently of the
Holy Spirit. Sometimes,
if not often, spiritual gifts
enhance already existing talents,
but that isn't always the case.
Some preachers, for example, were
good speakers before they ever
began to preach. Others, however,
have received a special
enablement to speak that they
didn't have before they were
called by God. With
that introduction on the nature
and purpose of spiritual gifts,
next week I want to start looking
at the specific spiritual
enablements that that most often
manifest themselves in the
context of corporate worship, so
that me might not be ignorant of
how Jesus wants His church to
operate in the power of the Holy
Spirit.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
Ministry
of the
Word:
Recent
sermons
Our quarterly e-magazine
Gateway
Today
For the Gateway family
Pastor
Jerry's Weekly
E-Mail
Introduction
to spiritual
gifts
(First
in the series,
Spiritual Gifts in Corporate
Worship)
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
And yet some people would prefer
to remain in the dark about
spiritual gifts, and even
suppress their use in the church.
In seminary, for example, a
pastor told a group of us
preachers-in-training, "If God
gives you the gift of tongues,
enjoy it -- but don't tell a
soul."
Sermons
in
this
series
The
gift of the Holy
Spirit"If
you then, though you are evil,
know how to give good gifts to
your children, how much more
will your Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those
who ask him!"
Peter
replied, "Repent and be
baptized, every one of you, in
the name of Jesus Christ for
the forgiveness of your sins.
And you will receive the gift
of the Holy Spirit. The
promise is for you and your
children and for all who are
far off -- for all whom the
Lord our God will
call."
The
mark of a
Christian"By
their fruit you will recognize
them. Do people pick grapes
from thornbushes, or figs from
thistles? Likewise every good
tree bears good fruit, but a
bad tree bears bad fruit. A
good tree cannot bear bad
fruit, and a bad tree cannot
bear good fruit. Every tree
that does not bear good fruit
is cut down and thrown into
the fire. Thus, by their fruit
you will recognize
them."
But
the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control.
"You
did not choose me, but I chose
you and appointed you to go
and bear fruit -- fruit that
will last. Then the Father
will give you whatever you ask
in my name."
Never get the idea that the
manifestation of spiritual gifts
-- in an individual or in a
church -- is evidence of
spiritual maturity. In
1
Corinthians
1:7
Paul acknowledges that the church
at Corinth didn't lack for
spiritual gifts, yet he
admonishes them for their
immaturity. They're not using
their gifts in a way that builds
up the body of Christ. Rather,
their misuse of the gifts is
resulting in division.
A
look at the Greek
The
word translated "service" is
diakonia. We get the word
"deacon" from this word. God
calls individuals into particular
service in the church. We
naturally expect to see,
operating through them, gifts
that are commensurate with the
service to which they are called.
But this does not exclude the
operation of other gifts in that
person's life.
Next
is "working" -- or "operations,"
as the King James Bible
translates it. The Greek work is
energema, from which we
get our word "energy. This
appears to be a general term that
includes any manner in which God
makes His presence and power
recognizable in the
world.
This
would lead us to the conclusion
that the lists of spiritual gifts
mentioned in Scripture are not
intended to be exhaustive lists,
but are simply representative.
There are limitless ways by which
God can make His presence and
power visible in the world.
Not
the same as
talents
Conclusion
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
020526a: Introduction to
Spiritual Gifts.
©
2002 Gerald R.
Varnado