Amen.

Well, thank you all for leading us in worship. I know they are always so faithful to get here early and practice and set up and get all the tech stuff going as well. So thank you all for serving that capacity to bless us with singing the Word. So we come and we hear the Word preached, but we sing the Word before we hear the Word. So more Word all the time. So it makes for a good, healthy church. We are going to be in 1 Corinthians 12, verses 1-11.

1 Corinthians 12, verses 1-11.

Paul writes, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed and no one can say, Jesus is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are a variety of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all and everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance 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 working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between Spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as He wills. When I was, I don’t know what I was, probably 11-12 years old, I was 12. nothing in life I wanted more than a dirt bike. I mean, nothing in life I wanted more. And back then, you know, obviously the Internet really wasn’t a thing. So you remember they had like Auto Trader or like Cycle Trader or whatever, and you had to go to the gas station and buy the magazine. So every Thursday they would get a fresh copy. And I didn’t have any money, but I would buy them and I would just look at all the motorcycles or dirt bikes for sale. I don’t know what happened, but my dad, when I was 12 years old, he took me across town. I lived in Louisville. He took me to Buckner, Kentucky. It’s kind of rural, pretty out there, rural Kentucky. And we bought this 1986 Honda XR80, and it had a royal blue seat, and the body was orange, and it was heavenly. It was everything that I could have wanted. And for years, I didn’t. I drove that thing, man. We had a flood wall behind our house, and so I’d go ride. If we’d go to the lake, my cousins and Uncle Nance had, you know, a lake place. I’d be able to take my XR80, and that was my dirt bike. I had a yellow helmet. It didn’t match, but I didn’t care, you know, when I was 12. But I loved it, man. I had a dirt bike, and it was great. And sometimes people give us gifts because they’re for us. It’s a gift for you. It’s a gift for you. You know, you get to. You enjoy that thing. And that’s not a bad thing. You know, you think about people you love, and you just give them things because you want them to have them. There are other kinds of gifts we give because there are certain things in life people need to do well. It would be like buying a doctor his first stethoscope. Is it for him? Well, if he wants to sit around and listen to his own heart, I guess he could do that. But you’re buying him something because he needs it to help other people, right? In the same way, spiritual gifts are given to us, but not necessarily just for us. So we need to remember God does not exist for us. We exist for God and all the good that God gives me. Yes, I enjoy. I enjoy, but God is giving it to me so I can use it for the welfare of others, which is to the glory of God. So everything in life, everything I have, but even everything that I can do never points back to me. Everything points to the glory of God. And this isn’t, you know, especially important, I think, because, you know, we live very much so in a me-centered, self-centered, egotistical. Society, and Paul’s talking about here, you all use what you have, be what you are, not for you, but for the other, for the glory of God. So Paul’s coming into spiritual gifts, and that’s what we’re talking about, what’s the point of them. He says, starting in verse 1, concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I don’t want you to be uninformed, or you could say ignorant. I don’t want you to be ignorant regarding things that are from the Spirit. I don’t want you to be ignorant regarding spiritual persons. You could translate it, which is important, because sins committed in ignorance are still sin. If you tell an officer of the law, well, I didn’t know you can’t knock over a gas station. I had no idea. He’s not going to say, oh, you didn’t know. You’re still held accountable to the law. That’s true in the Old Testament. There were provision in the law for sins committed in ignorance. So God is always holding you accountable, and there’s no excuse. Here’s the thing, God always speaks into every facet of life so that we are without excuse. And if that’s true, it means that being a Christian means I’m always living in the posture of someone who’s growing. I’m always in the posture of someone who wants to improve. I don’t want to just settle into my sin, settle into this version of a Christian I am. I’ve learned enough. I’ve gone far enough. I’m good. I’m done. I’m just going to right here. It doesn’t work. And this was the Corinthians problems on a number of fronts that we’ve looked at, right? Paul’s saying, hold on. You’ve settled into this, and you can’t stop there. Let’s correct that. Let’s fix that. So one more time, Paul is offering. His spiritual corrective to the Corinthian church. And I don’t want you to take that lightly. I don’t want you to take it lightly that Paul is correcting the Corinthian church. It’s amazing. And it’s no small thing that he’s doing it. I want you to see why.

Verse two, he says, you know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols. However, you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the spirit of God ever says Jesus is a curse. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.

So Paul says, you know. You know. How you were led astray. He says, however, all the varieties of the ways that you were led astray. And he says to what? To mute idols. So apart from Christ. Before you were Christians, here was your very best spiritual intuition. You carved little wooden birds. You carved little wooden creatures or images. You had little metal cast things you would buy in the marketplace. And you would worship things that can’t talk. You would worship things that can’t hear. You would worship things that can’t see. And you would impart a way, a religion that they supposedly would give you. So Paul’s not embarrassing them. He’s just drawing out the sharp contrast of that’s what you were. Think about what you are now. It’s a miracle that any of them could be corrected. Because it means they’re no longer in this helpless, dull, spiritual state that they were in. He says, you know what you were. He says, look back. See how far you were from Christ. He says, you know what you were. He says, understand this then. You simply can’t say Jesus is Lord unless you’re in the Spirit. And it would be an impossible thing for you to curse Jesus if you’re in the Spirit. In other words, it is a supernatural work of heaven if one would say and mean it wholeheartedly, Jesus is Lord. That’s something God has done in you. That is the alien force of heaven, of the Spirit of God, awakening you to think, to think of things you could not awaken yourself to. So to simply say, man, you can be corrected on this. You can change. Wow. Because you couldn’t have corrected me five years ago. Because I would have said words you shouldn’t have heard, or shouldn’t have said, or I would have made motions with my hands, or I would have just walked away from you. Yet Paul’s saying, because of what the Spirit of God has done, you can be corrected. You can change. You can grow.

So before we even consider the gifts the Spirit gives us, I want you to think about first the gift you have in Christ. Just what it means to be Christ.

Alone, because of the Spirit’s work, you believe the Gospel. So alone, because of the Spirit, you can grow up in the Gospel. Paul says, however you were led. And that little phrase reminds me of, my creative capacity, your creative capacity to sin. However you were led. Like, who wants to stand up here and list, you know, everything you’ve done in your life before you came to Christ, or sometimes after. You and I have a creative capacity to think up all kinds and to do all kinds of sin, all kinds of sin. All kinds of wrong in every avenue from the ways we abuse sex to the way we treat other people to the way we imagine God’s. All the things that we do, Paul says, however you were led and we heartily defend our sin until what happens? Until the light of the Gospel shines in. And that outside alien force of righteousness comes into our hearts as we believe the Gospel. And grace shines through. So, why is it that you decided to come here at 4 o’clock? Why is it that you could hope to obey Jesus? Why is it that you are bothered when you sin? Why is it? It’s only because the Spirit of God has come upon you.

Now, that’s not to say there aren’t false professions of faith. But to get to Paul’s point, if your profession’s real, your life will match it and you will grow and you will want to go and you will be correctable and you will want someone to correct you.

So, the gift of seeing and loving Jesus,

the reality of believing the truth, is that a gift to you?

Do you relish that? Are you in wonder and awe? And sometimes I just think, dumbfounded, when you realize that God has saved you and it’s a work that only He could do. So, it’s not a small thing. It’s not a small thing to be driving down the road and someone pop in your mind or something to pray for. It’s not a small thing to confess sin to a brother. It’s not a small thing to be moved to share the Gospel. It’s not a small thing to be moved to give your money away. It’s not a small thing to do any of these things. Because it’s a work, it’s a sign that the Spirit of God

is at work in you. And I know like, maybe if you grew up in church, you get into it, and so you hear those words and it’s like, yeah, I’m a Christian, I’m a Christian. And friends, we can’t do that. You’ve got to resist settling into what it means to be a saved person and just live in the wonder and awe of it. You had a creative capacity for sin, but Paul says now you’ve got a corrective capacity to change and to grow. You’ve got to grow up more into Jesus. And you should desire it and long for it. As bad as the Corinthian church is flying off the rails, and we’ve made this point a bunch, and boy are they off the rails, it’s amazing that Paul still keeps writing with that pen. It’s amazing that Paul keeps writing because he believes this isn’t about them, this isn’t about how deep in this sin they are, it isn’t about how ignorant they are, it isn’t about how hopeless they seem, it’s about this. The Spirit of God has done His work, so the Spirit of God will finish His work.

Because Jesus doesn’t say follow me with one leg, right, just kind of drag the other. Jesus doesn’t say follow me intermittently. What does Jesus say to us? He says, leave everything behind and follow me. In other words, Jesus doesn’t say you can somewhat follow me, but you have to arrive at perfection. If you’re following Jesus, you’re following Jesus, the only end goal, for every Christian, is that the Spirit will grow us up completely to sanctification and perfection and glory in heaven. So I can never be satisfied with good enough. I’ve been a Christian five years, ten years, fifteen years, fifty years. Oh, I’ve got the whole Bible memorized. It doesn’t matter, friends, until we’re with Christ in glory, I’m not yet as I should be. So I want to grow. I want to be corrected in the Spirit. Professing Jesus as Lord, just the first of many movements of the Spirit in me.

I have a friend that lives in Seattle, Washington. He lived here for a while, but moved back. And he showed me a picture one time of like, you know, his city. And I was like, that’s beautiful. I think it was Mount Rainier that kind of just towers over Seattle. And I said, that’s amazing. I said, don’t you miss living there? And you get to see that beautiful mountain like every day. And he said, ah, you stop seeing it after a while. And that hit me. You stop seeing it after a while. And it’s no different in the Christian life. If you’re not careful, friends, you just kind of stop seeing the wonder of it. You stop feeling the humility of it that God saved you. That you have a capacity to be like Jesus. And that should wow you every day. It should wow you.

Jesus said, He said,

You have to have faith like a child. But I think what’s accompanied with childlike faith is childlike wonder. You know, kids just have sort of a sparkle in their eye. Like life is big. Everything’s grand. I think when we get older, we get kind of like fuddy-duddy-ish. You know? But as Jesus calls us to step out and just believe Him because He loves us and I just trust Him, at the same time, I don’t want to lose the wonder. I don’t want to lose the wonder of what it means to know God, the Creator of heaven and earth, who promises me new life forevermore with Him.

Do you live with a certain sensitivity to the Spirit? Are you wanting the Spirit to correct you? Are you wanting to change? Are you wanting to grow? These are signs of a genuine Christian. Are you looking for your sin to be pointed out? Who wants that? Well, it doesn’t feel good. But you should want it. You should want it. You should desire it. Are you correctable? And you know, a lot of times, the way that God corrects people, a lot of times, the way that the Spirit corrects you is not just like an impression on the heart, like, I shouldn’t have said that. It’s when a brother or sister is willing to come up to you and say, hey, I’ve been praying about something and I need to correct you. That’s the Spirit’s correction a lot of times. So you have to ask yourself, are you willing to be corrected by people in the local church who love you and mean well for you? That’s a sign of genuineness is receiving correction so that we can all grow up together. And I think that’s your individual life, but we’re all what? Individuals together of the same body. So if we’re not growing together in Jesus, that means the body of Christ is not growing as it should grow together. Like Paul says, it has joints and ligaments together.

But if I’m willing to grow in the Spirit and I’m willing to be used by God,

Paul says it’s not just for me to be a saved person, enjoy it, love it. Paul really expects us to look outward at one another in the church.

He says in verse 4, there’s a variety of gifts with the same Spirit.

Variety of service but the same Lord. Varieties of activities but it’s the same God who empowers them all and everyone.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit

for common good. Now here’s what’s really interesting to note. Note Paul does not say, now there are varieties of spiritual phenomena. There are varieties of supernatural works among you. I think it’s really important that Paul says gifts. Because what’s the problem right now? The problem right now for the Corinthians is pride and possession. Mine. Look at me. Look what I can do. So one writer noted that that gifts is a really important word because it kind of cuts through this very sinful spirit they have of innateness. Like, well, I have what I have because I deserve it. I have what I have because I’ve earned it. And this had to become spiritual gifts, this kind of tool for tearing out who’s really spiritual, who’s really important, and who has like different gifts and we can kind of classify people this way.

But if it’s a work of God to save us, if it’s a work of God to grow us, friends, at the exact same time, it’s a work of the Spirit to equip us. Everything I have, I have because of God. Because God has given me. That’s true for every believer. And he goes on and says it two other ways. And I think the two ways he says it are very on point. He says there’s a variety of what? Service.

Why do you have gifts? Service to the Lord. There’s a variety of activities, but it’s the same God who empowers them all and everyone.

So here’s the big why. Why does he say, why does he say that you would have spiritual gifts? Why does he say that you have these things? He says it’s a manifestation of what? The Spirit for the common good. That’s it. Why has God given you anything? Why has God spiritually enriched you? So you can be helpful, so you can benefit, so you can edify those in the local church. That’s why. Which, you know, sounds, doesn’t it? Strangely like Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God and though he was king of the universe, was willing to give himself up and wrap himself in flesh and do what needed to be done for the welfare of other people who didn’t even deserve it. So it makes sense then if God would give me and you a certain responsibility, certain privileges that have certain responsibilities, it wouldn’t be so I could say, look at me and look what I can do, but it would be, hey, look at what God has given me so I can steward it well for him. That’s why. So not muscle flexing. Not muscle flexing.

It’s to say, look at what I can do in and for the local church. This is why God has given spiritual gifts. And spiritual gifts have responsibilities and your responsibilities leave you accountable to God. And it’s true for all of life. So it’s certainly true when it comes to spiritual gifts. In 1 Peter 4, 10-11, the apostle says, as each has received a gift, use it, why? To serve one another. As good stewards of God’s varied grace, whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God. One who serves is one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. There’s your reason so that God gets the glory. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. It’s for God’s glory. It’s for God’s glory.

So I want to look with you at that. At these gifts starting in verse 8. But to note, there isn’t in the New Testament a comprehensive, exhaustive list of spiritual gifts. You get some spattered here in 12 and further on. There’s some in 13. There’s some spattered in Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and in 1 Peter. So there’s no master list. And I think it’s reasonable to say that’s because God didn’t give us one because He doesn’t want us doing the thing I think our flesh is intended to do. Here are all the possible gifts. This one’s mine. Because you know what happens when you have your superpower? You’re not willing to do anything else. Oh, there’s a cause to give money? Well, my spiritual gift isn’t generosity, so, sorry. I’m a serve guy. So if y’all need some tables stacked after church, I’ll do that. You know? Oh, well, you know, I would love to stay and do that, but that’s not my calling. That’s not gifting. And really what we’re saying is I’m lazy and I don’t want to do it, and I have this reason why I think I can get out of it. So that doesn’t work at all. We need to kind of see spiritual gifts in shades. Think about it like this. If there was a young believer, brand new to the faith, you know, he very likely, he’s excited, and boy, does he serve. And everyone in that local church says, man, John, John, man, he just serves. He is there all the time, and he is just ready to serve. Well, as he grows in his faith and he studies the Word of God, is that all he can ever have? Hopefully in five, ten years, he can say, wow, John has really the gift of knowledge. That dude knows the Bible like the back of his hand. He is useful in teaching some classes in this church. So there’s no reason to think like, I found my superpower, guys. I’ve got it. There’s no reason. That’s why I wouldn’t have different shades of them according to the needs of a church in different times. So spiritual gifts, I think, can be seasonal. They’re partial in when and how they’re used. And when we see them like that, we get away from this mentality of what’s mine. You know, what’s my thing? I’m looking outward to what are the needs of the church. And if there’s a need and no one can fill it except for you, there’s probably a good chance that God’s given you the gifting for it.

So gifts, I want to do it like this, again, to keep us away from like the superpower mentality. Let’s do it like, hey, I’ve got this friend. All right. For example, I’m not mechanically inclined. All right. But sometimes in my mind, it’ll go, hey, I got this friend. And they’re like Cameron or Chase will pop in my mind. And like, they’ll know what to do. I think that’s the benefit of having a friend. It’s the benefit of spiritual gifts. So think about it like that as we kind of work through the list. Verse eight for two, one is given through the spirit, the utterance of wisdom. So what’s meant by wisdom? Wisdom is the ability to kind of see certainly complex, diverse situations where it’s not really clear what like the best decision to make is. And that’s life a lot of times, even in the Christian life. And it’s the ability to kind of discern how to act, what to do in any given circumstance. So wisdom can’t be disconnected from knowledge, which is another one we’ll look at. But wisdom is the ability to really apply knowledge in all of life and make the best decision, whether it be ethical, moral, or just a decision. Maybe you’re thinking, man, I’ve got this job offer. There’s these pros and cons. It’s going to be more money. But should I go for just the money? Shouldn’t I go? I would have to move my family. I need some wisdom. Hey, I’ve got this friend.

You see, God gifts us in the church with people that have the things that we need. Vice versa. It’s wisdom.

Utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit. So that’s very much so doctrine. It’s like biblical understanding. What should I believe about heaven and hell? What should I believe about the nature of salvation? Why are there covenants in the Old Testament? What are the significance of covenants? In the Old Testament for me, living on this side of the cross. What does it look like to be a Christian in a given society and submit to the government? A great number of things that are doctrinally related to truth that you need to know, that I need to know, hey, I’ve got this friend. Now, hopefully your pastor would be a good place to somewhat start with knowledge. But it doesn’t stop there. We need to know the truth about God. Why? So I can know what is right. So I can live right, ethically, morally, believe right, and not be dissuaded by culture, not be dissuaded by false teachers. So there’s knowledge that I need. Hey, I’ve got this friend.

Moving on to the next one. He says faith by the same Spirit. You say, now hold on. Don’t we all have to have faith to be Christians? Yes. And this gets back to the shades thing. Like not, not everyone, you have this one, you have this one. Like we all have a little bit of wisdom and knowledge, hopefully. But at the same time, it’s not talking about saving faith. This refers to Jesus. When Jesus says, if you have faith, you know, it’s sort of a mustard seed, you can move a mountain. Jesus curses the fig tree and they’re amazed. And He says, hey, if you had faith, you could, you know, you can move the mountain into the sea. So it’s faith that really believes God can and will do big things. It’s not, I believe God, is going to give me twelve million dollars and I’m naming it and I’m claiming it and I got big faith. OK, that’s not the faith. That’s not the faith we’re talking. We’re talking about a faith that leads a Christian to step out and do great things for God, especially in difficult, scary, sometimes I think illogical circumstances. Really, you know, as I was preparing for this, Chris and I went down to Coleman last weekend. Was it last weekend? For, um, Send Me Refuge, you know, Archie, we went down there to Mexico and they had a banquet last weekend in Coleman so we rode down there and it was a reminder that’s someone that I think of when I think about the gift of faith. This is a guy that just flew to Mexico, shows up, prays, Lord, here I am and God just provides like resources and buildings and he just has this big vision and he’s believing God’s going to do it because Archie wants to be like wealthy and rich. No, he’s not becoming wealthy and rich. He’s just sharing the gospel. He’s doing ministry at that banquet. They’re like talking about some million dollar coffee farm that he is like getting. It’s like, are you a liar? I think you’re a liar. You’re either like God’s doing awesome things or you’re a liar because you’re riding around the truck with him as you’re going to these towns and he’s telling you these crazy stories and you’re like, if that’s true, wow. You know, he texts periodically like, hey, this girl just got bit by a snake and she’s probably going to die. The doctors say there’s no way to live. She can live. Pray. And like a day later, she lived. You know, he’s got like a million of these kinds of stories and I think he’s got great faith and I think we should aspire to have faith like that. All of us. Because God does great and wonderful things when we believe like that. Don’t you? Who do you want praying for you? Let me say it that way. Who do you want praying for you? The guy with that kind of faith? Yeah. So let’s grow in that kind of faith.

That’s not disconnected from the next one. Healing by the same spirit. So I think about, in Acts, when Peter and John are walking up to the temple and there’s the guy begging for money and remember Peter says, money, I don’t have any of that stuff. Silver and gold, I don’t have but what I do have and he grabs the man by the hand and he pulls the man up and the man begins to walk. You read all throughout the Gospels how often does Jesus give the blind their sight, the deaf can hear, the mute can speak, all kinds of sicknesses and diseases, leprosy. Jesus raises people from the dead. Now, here’s the interesting thing and this gets back to why it’s not super power. In 2 Timothy, we read that Paul’s friend Trophimus is ill and Paul has to leave him behind because he’s ill. We read in Philippians that Epaphroditus almost dies because Paul seemed to think he wasn’t going to make it. So you see, all these gifts are still in accordance with God’s will, God’s spirit, God’s season and I think that fact that Paul didn’t say well, I’m the apostle of Paul so I just touched him and he was good. It tells us that we don’t have these weapons. Like, look at mine. And I think especially the gift of healing and a commentator made this point I think it’s so good that fact that Paul couldn’t heal these two people really shows us that we shouldn’t institutionalize gifts. Every once in a while you’ll see a very, very charismatic Pentecostal church and they’ll have like a school of healing. Okay? I think that’s highly unbiblical. God doesn’t call us to like, you know, we have these mystic powers and I kind of cultivate this gift of healing. So it kind of speaks against that.

Can people be healed today supernaturally? I think is the next question we want to ask. I believe that God doesn’t change and as I pray for sick people whether it’s cancer or this or that or the other I believe God can do whatever God wants to do. You know, we read in James if you’re sick call the elders to anoint you with oil and they’ll lay their hands on you and he says the prayer of faith will save you. So I don’t think the New Testament puts a limit on when and what God can do. You know, I remember when I was young I grew up in just a Baptist church. It wasn’t at all on the charismatic Pentecostal spectrum at all. But there was a missionary we supported named Dave Walker. I mean, Dave Walker he would come home and he would have the same kind of like wild stories. It’s like you’re either like a liar from hell or God like is using you in incredible ways. So all kinds of stories of healing like that. And one time when I was a little older my Sunday school teacher and again when we’re talking about just a blue collar worker not like an eccentric person like not highly emotional just a regular guy that I grew up with grew up with his daughter just a guy like I love and trust him just a good guy. He went on one of these like a mission trip that Dave wanted him to go on and I remember he came back and I’m talking to him and he told us like there were you know it happened he was like there was this girl and she had this massive tumor on her body and all the missionaries gathered around they put their hands on her and I put my hand and he said I was thinking well we’ll pray for her nothing’s going to happen. And he said we prayed and we were done praying we took our hands away and this massive tumor was gone.

So again I’m left with okay you’re a liar oh you’re a liar too. I’m not going to do that because I just don’t see the Bible putting a limit on what God can and will do and where he’ll do it and when you meet believers that God’s put in your life and they’re attesting to it I think you say well praise the Lord according to God’s will and God’s timing and God’s way God can still work however he wants to work today. I think also it’s important to kind of think about it too and I know this topic can go in a million different directions and this is this is the first of many sermons on this topic on this subject through Corinthians. God seems to work differently I think in the West than he does in the East and what I mean is I think when you go to the East and they don’t have copies of God’s word they don’t have one if any reliable Bible teachers it seems that God’s willing to work in supernatural ways that he’s not here. One of my favorite theologians says God’s willing to work God replaces supernatural signs and wonders with supernatural community. In other words Jesus doesn’t say you know they’ll know you by your supernatural signs and wonders he says they’ll know you by the way you love one another so God God seems to use supernatural signs and wonders to establish churches and then once you have healthy supernatural community that’s the thing that God expects to do the work of of working to save people as the word is preached. So next one on that would be miracles kind of the I think you could see it as the negative side of healing Paul strikes the sorcerer with blindness who’s standing against him in Acts 13 Ananias and Sapphira Peter strikes some dead in the spirit because they lie if you remember that story about how much they the financial you know finances that they’re giving to the early church the next one in verse 10

is prophecy prophecy and when we think of the word prophecy the first thing that probably comes to mind and rightly so is Old Testament prophets you think about like Elijah you think about like Jonah you think about one of these guys like showing up and I don’t know why I imagine they have a giant staff in their hand but they do and a big beard and they like proclaim God’s truth a lot of times it’s negative you know we walked through Isaiah this past semester and a lot of times God has some very negative things to say about what’s going to happen so prophecy is I think in its most natural sense someone commissioned by God to foretell future events Agabus twice in the New Testament once he shows up to tell about the famine that’s getting ready to hit in Acts 11 and in Acts 12 and in Acts 21 he binds Paul hand and foot to show that if Paul goes to Jerusalem that’s going to be his lot and we see Philip has daughters that are prophetesses so that’s prophecy foretelling at the same time prophecy can mean just setting forth the truth so as I stand up here and I say to you hey this is God’s word this is God’s truth I’m proclaiming God’s truth to you that in its sense is prophecy prophecy now it’s not prophetic like hey tomorrow at 3 o’clock a guy in a suit is going to show up and he’s going to hand you an envelope like that’s that’s not obviously what we’re doing on Sundays but when you rightly set forth God’s truth

God’s at work so it doesn’t need to be any more I think supernatural than that so let let me like I’m going to ask questions that I know pop in our minds is that good for today could someone you know walk up to you and say hey God gave me like a word for you I want to share it with you I don’t believe there’s anything convincing in the New Testament and again we’ll talk about these kinds of things in coming weeks I don’t think there’s anything convincing in the New Testament that says God can’t work today in the ways that he worked in centuries past so if said person walked up to you and said I’m going to make an example you know hey man I just want to let you know I’m praying for the Lord told me you know you’re going through a hardship right now and I know about it I’m just praying for you or something I don’t know I think you take the integrity of that person into question you take their motive into question you weigh what they’re saying against the Bible and then according with the Old Testament you weigh like if it’s at all true I mean the Bible’s very clear nobody gets nobody gets a free license to just say stuff on behalf of God without being scrutinized I don’t get to stand up here and preach without being scrutinized by you you should scrutinize me so and even you would be killed in the Old Testament if you gave a prophetic word that didn’t come to pass so again I think you just go back to the word and say well what’s the motive what’s the intent is this useful how is this helping me and I’m going to weigh it against God’s word last one on this well not the last one the next one would be the ability to distinguish between spirits so that would be very much so reasonable I think for everyone to have to an agree because if you don’t to some degree as a Christian have the ability to distinguish between spirits I can stand up here and tell you wear the color blue forever because God said so don’t ever leave your house without shaving your head or something crazy well he’s the pastor so distinguishing between spirits is I think a special endowment by the spirit to see through new popularity teachings new popular teachers books that are very faddish things that people seem to be hook line and sinker just taken in the new testament is very clear that there will be false prophets always that will always be a problem for the church you just think about that practically think about the protestant reformation when Martin Luther did what he did you know in nailing the theses to the church door something was in him going this is not right I can see between right and wrong and I’ve got to say something about so it’s just a spirit that can just see truth and is willing to stand for that truth so the church isn’t harmed so very very useful you know for us today even as we see a lot of apostasy inside the walls of the church distinguishing between teachings and spirits and all those kinds of things okay last one to another various kinds of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues so one commentator wrote it’s funny and it’s true Paul on purpose puts this gift last in the list as he does in every list because it is the most troublesome gift and it was the most troublesome gift for the ancient church and it’s the most troublesome church for us as the modern church just as much and this was the biggest issue and again we’ll get there the issue was this gift this business of speaking in tongues they were really glorifying it they were misusing it it was something that should not have been at all so what is speaking in tongues as Paul’s talking about it where do we see that so speaking in tongues we’ll go back to Acts chapter 2 so this is the birth of

we’ll just read it Acts chapter 2 verses

whatever I have up there Acts 2 3 through 11 and it says in divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devout men from every nation under heaven and at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each was hearing them speak in his own language and they were amazed and astonished saying are not all these who are speaking Galileans and how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language Parthians and Medes Elamites residents of Mesopotamia Judea Cappadocia Pontus Asia Phrygia Pamphylia Egypt and the parts of Libya belong to Cyrene visitors from Rome both Jews and proselytes Cretans Arabians we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God and it happens there and it happens in chapter 8 with the Samaritans it happens in chapter 10 with Gentiles it happens in chapter 19 at Ephesus and each time it’s a new people group it’s a new space

proclaimed and the apostles lay their hands on them and as a sign of authenticity and genuineness those people begin to speak in tongues and what is that what is that it’s amazing it would be amazing if I got up here and started speaking Spanish why because I can’t speak Spanish not even like fluently like like you know hello I could say hola and that’s it it’s not spiritual

people who don’t know all these languages are speaking all these languages and people can hear what is that it’s supernatural so it’s evangelistic because let’s go back why did Paul say spiritual gifts exist because they’re cool not what he said so we can like feel really emotional and spiritual that’s not what he said Paul said spiritual gifts are given for the common good and what it’s was was highly evangelistic it

was special and unique because God was giving the ancient church the ability to do this so as a supernatural sign where churches were being established not as and this is what the Corinthians were doing as signs of showmanship look how awesome and spiritual I am and on top of that and this is chapter four we’ll get into this Paul demands and requires an interpreter present someone who can understand and share what is being said so again modern Pentecostalism modern charismatic movement

has heavily highly abused this you know I have and you probably do too I mean I’m not going to assume what kind of friends you have but I’ve had friends that you grew up in that and you know people talking gibberish or ecstatic and you know flailing on the floor or barking like dogs and running around in circles and there’s multiple people doing this like and it’s just it’s chaos and it’s disorderly that’s nothing like what Paul’s talking about at all I want us to see again what Paul says in twelve why do spiritual gifts exist he says they exist for the common good and for the common good and so can that happen today so I would not so the two words are cessationism and being a continualist so either you believe that all those gifts they stopped with the apostolic age when the last apostle died all those gifts quit too or you’re a continuationist and you believe that God may still use them in different ways I am not like this hardcore

continuationist I just don’t I’ve never found any arguments that the gifts have to stop convincing and I don’t see any passage in the Bible that teaches that okay so this is one of those super hairy honestly divisive issues where like people are ready to like start swinging about what’s true and what’s not true so I don’t want it to become that but I simply am not convinced from the scriptures that it has to be that way where I stand on that is kind of what I said already I think you and I have the written word of God we have access in the west to man hopefully I’m a decent Bible teacher but we have access to a ton of wonderful Bible teachers we have access to centuries past of great Bible teachers that you can Google I don’t think there’s a need for spiritual gifts here the way that there could be in other places in the world or the way that they were used and why they were used in the Old Testament so that’s where I am on it so I’m not like looking to do it like alright somebody speak in tongues today like I don’t think it’s a sign that we’re more spiritual I just believe we do have the word of God we have access to good Bible teaching and that’s why we don’t see it the way that maybe it was done or it might be done in the world today all that to say what would I do if next Sunday somebody starts speaking in tongues okay and we’re all notice it we all notice it what do you do what do you do you go to that person and you say yes do you have an interpreter and they say no then you say be quiet that’s what you do okay because that’s Paul’s prescription is if there’s no interpreter no speaking in tongues period it’s just biblical prescription and I think that doesn’t need to be any more wordy than that Paul’s just very clear on services church gatherings and I’m kind of preaching a sermon we’ll preach in a few weeks they’re supposed to be orderly they’re supposed to be organized they’re supposed to be for the benefit of people and again spiritual gifts used that aren’t benefiting to other people are being what misused which is not to the glory of God so

it’s something like marriage if you show up to a marriage like what can I get out of this you’re going to have a horrible marriage right it doesn’t mean you’re not going to get something out of it surely in a good marriage you’re going to get years of love and encouragement and friendship but you had better be giving and thinking about what it means to give so we come to the local church friends God gives us so that we can give yes we will also receive but in the manner and likeness of Jesus we must give local church life is not a spiritual buffet but you can’t

show up and just take take take church is a spiritual family families are healthy when we love and serve and help one of another it’s required for the perseverance and health of the local church that’s necessary that’s necessary so spiritual gifts God has gifted me with spiritual life but he’s gifted me with that life with it’s equipping so that I can be a blessing to others and help them as they follow Jesus and what are they doing with their gifts they’re helping me follow Jesus and the whole thing is to the glory of God so the spirit’s not shorting you like man I can’t preach or teach or I don’t have the gift of administration if you want that one or whatever God has gifted you that’s one of them or leadership whatever it is God has given you exactly what you need he’s equipped you exactly as you need to be equipped to do what he wants you to do and

on that is implied you must be a part of a local church if God gives spiritual gifts to Christians to help other Christians if you’re not with other Christians you can’t be helped by those gifts meaning you’re not going to get the help you need to get further down the road so you see the suicide it is to be a Christian and not live vitally organically connected to the local church that’s so implied it’s so obvious the gifts help us the gifts help us you are God’s help to someone sitting next to you they are your help we help one another get home that’s what it is we follow Jesus together for his glory okay let’s be a

church when we come to your word sometimes it feels like standing next to Mount Everest because Lord it’s so big and it goes so deep and there’s so many angles to it we just want to be faithful to it Lord we want to be faithful Lord that we are approaching your word that we are applying it to our life in a way that honors you so Lord as we look at and continue to look at what it means to love one another well by serving one another with the gifts you’ve given us God we pray that your word and your spirit would be our direction God we wouldn’t interpret the Bible according to our preferences we wouldn’t interpret the Bible according to cultural pressures but we would say this is what the Bible means according to the spirit

Lord help us be self less help us long to die more so that we can give help and life and love to those in our church family help us value one another Paul says consider the other more significant God let us consider those in our lives as more significant than ourselves help us love with the love of Jesus and God we cannot do it we cannot do it if your spirit doesn’t work it in us so we just pray Lord more of your spirit more sensitivity to your spirit more leading in the spirit and all for your glory and it’s in Jesus name Amen