Tonight, I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of 1 Corinthians, the book of 1 Corinthians. If you're a visitor, we're working through this book, and tonight we come to chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians. My title doesn't quite accurately reflect what I'm doing. I think I was just eager to answer that question, and I realized that there's a long section here, so I'm going to answer it. Probably a better title would be something like refusing to accept who we should be. So we'll see at the end of it if that works. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 tonight, we're going to look together at the first 11 verses. Last week we looked at the first three. I'll read all 11, but the emphasis tonight comes from verses 4 through 11. Let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord. 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 a curse. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. Now, there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are 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 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. May the Lord bless tonight the hearing of His Word. People have always had a difficult time understanding and accepting what christianity really is and that is because people always had a hard time accepting who jesus is you see this in the gospel ministry the great confusion during his ministry which is where i ended last time in john 7 where they were so caught up his even his own brothers wanting him to get out and make his glory known you you can't have this kind of power and not get out and make it known in the open so that everyone would see it. They wanted more from him. They were frustrated with him. Judas at one point snapped, riding on the coattails of this rising star in Israel. He wasn't rising enough for him. And so there was always some frustration over the perceived lack of glory. They had an idea of who the Messiah should be when he would come and what he would do and how he would show himself to deliver the nation of Israel. And you'll notice in the gospel ministries that they were caught up with the signs that he could do. But what bothered them is when he wouldn't do them on their terms, in their places. And he often spoke of this problem. He was a servant that had come to do the will of his father. Not to be an independent actor. In many ways, if we're honest, we're frustrated with Christianity. We share the same kind of frustration. If we're going to be honest tonight, where's the power to all this? I mean it. I've been steadily asking that question in our study. Where is the power to all this? Where is the life to all of this? I mean, I want to see something. I want to experience something. I want to know that there's real power out there. I want to know the bliss of the Christian life as some people have described it to me. That corresponds with what I think Christianity should be. I want it to be powerful for me and I want it to be powerful for my children. We're all worried about our children. And if I don't feel that, something's got to be wrong. It's got to be. We all are after religious experience to some degree. And we all struggle with that to some degree or another. In fact, in being a pastor now in a Reformed church and growing up in a Reformed church, this has been what I have noticed steadily in our tradition and something that we have struggled with among our own church members, a dissatisfaction, I've said this, with who we are. It's in us. We're a little frustrated if we're honest. And the single issue of the dissatisfaction really is that it feels like a powerless ministry. It's hard to be reformed today. It really is. It's hard to be reformed today when there are varieties of so-called ministries that are doing things that are much more popular, much more successful, and much more powerful with boundaries that no longer exist. It's just tough. But have you ever really thought through what's happening in our church world. It's not hard to pinpoint. At any given time, there's a church on top. Shelf life for churches today on top isn't very long, but at any given time, there's a church on top. Outwardly speaking, that ministry comes across to everyone as successful and powerful and popular. And what does that create among the churches? It puts a pressure on the churches. It puts a pressure that there's a desire to have the same perceived power. And what begins to happen? Well, you have churches that begin to reinvent themselves. They reinvent themselves to conform to that success, what seems to be working for the moment. And what really they become, and this is where I hope you see where I'm going with this tonight, what really they become are superficial copies of the top model. superficial copies of the top model. I mean, think of it. And I'm just stating fact here. How does third wave Pentecostalism sweep through a Reformed church? That was the Christian Reformed church. How does that happen? How does Pentecostalism sweep through Roman Catholicism? Strange, isn't it? I mean, that doesn't make sense to people. Well, it's not so hard when you look at it this way. Everyone wants to experience life, everyone wants to experience enthusiasm, and so they become copies of what appears to work. And in that way, you become a counterfeit of the false enthusiasm. That's why I've always said that reformed people, trying to be hip, produces one of the most goofy environments that I've ever seen in my life. I mean it. It's fake, it's artificial, because it's not who they are. I mean, ooh, it just doesn't work. It's like when I was a kid and there were white kids in school trying to be Mexican or black. You'd tell them, knock it off. You know, they didn't realize how they looked and what they were doing. And somebody needed to come alongside them and say, stop it. Well, we have just as much of a problem accepting who we are. We run the real tendency here to think that the power is found in the things that demonstrate the most enthusiasm. A very phenomenon in first century Corinth called enthusiasm, God within. Getting access to God. If you understand what I'm describing, you understand what Paul's confronting in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. You really do. You get some insight into that. When Christ rose from the dead, Christ led captivity captive and he gave gifts to men. well guess what began to happen in corinth they becoming so worldly about the ministry began to desire that those what they perceived as those gifts where the true power was found and what began to happen is that many people began to artificially copy these things and take to themselves these supernatural sign gifts and were in the process had combining the world's wisdom of the mystery cult religions. In the process, they became cheap imitators of the world's version of these apparent supernatural gifts. And the consequence was it was disrupting and destroying the unity of the body. And they didn't see that. We looked at this last time. Tongue speaking was viewed as kind of the pinnacle or one of the top of the gifts. And you see that to some degree today. It's not said as much as it used to be, but there was the thought that if you didn't speak in tongues, you weren't genuinely saved. That was a position that was held some time ago by some. It was practiced in the culture itself of Corinth in ecstasy and became known as this ecstatic speech that was done. It wasn't just a church phenomenon. However, we'll look at what tongues were in the first century, and we look at what happened in the book of Acts. That's coming. But there were certainly these supernatural gifts, these extraordinary, I should say, gifts in the first century. And what began to happen was Corinth looked nothing different than what they borrowed from the mystery cult religions. So everyone thought, wow, that guy right there, He's really spiritual. He's amazing. And then you had a host of artificial copycats come along and speak gibberish. And in the process, all the lesser gifts, those that were deemed not very glorious, not very helpful, not very inspiring, not very wow factor, lost all place in the church. Sad, isn't it? thereby utterly disrupting and destroying the Lord's intention of how gifts work and how the body works together. And Paul is very concerned because the consequence of this abuse was chaos in church, it was chaos of leadership, it was chaos of worship, it was chaos in understanding why the extraordinary gifts were ever given in the first place. They didn't get it. And chaos is what followed in Corinth. Well, in our passage tonight, the Apostle is correcting a wrong understanding of extraordinary gifts. And the goal of this is for every single person, and I think it's important to bring this home to us, every single person consider how important their gift is and use it with the intention that Christ gave it. That's the emphasis I want to stay with tonight. You all are spiritual. You all are given gifts. And you should use them. We started last time by looking at the ultimate test that Paul gave up front here. And it was a remarkable find for me. Like I said, I've never really spent a lot of time in this. And when he says right up front in verse 2 and 3, no one can say by the Holy Spirit, Jesus is accursed. He was dealing with a real problem in Corinth. Whether that was hypothetical, I tend to think that this ecstasy and enthusiasm was so great, teachers could get away with saying that much heresy, but it felt so good and it was so powerful and they were so spiritual, they were the leaders, they got away with it. Unbelievable, isn't it? It's sad that you could feel so good singing and sing heresy. And that gave us some kind of segue into it last time. Well, here in verses 4-6, he begins to explain then how we should learn to appreciate the variety of gifts he uses. And the first thing he did there was say, doctrine matters. The doctrinal test is where it all begins. Where do the gifts lead you doctrinally? What is being said? And I think you would always find in the history of the church that where there were an abuse of gifts, you would find a whole plethora of false teachings. So, in verse 4, now, he wants us to understand the value of variety of gifts. Notice what he says there in verse 4 of chapter 12. Now, there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are varieties of service, but the same Lord. There are varieties of activities, but it's the same God who empowers them all and everyone. And then he goes on, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Did you notice what he keeps emphasizing there? Variety. Variety. Variety. Three times to make the point. This is a God of variety and distribution of gifts. Variety basically means allotments or distributions. He says three different things about these varieties. There are varieties of gifts, there are varieties of ministries, and there are varieties of effects. Varieties of gifts. You see how beautiful the design here is of the Lord? If I were to go around tonight and ask you, what is your gift? In my experience, very few have been able to answer that. Never quite understood that. I've always wondered, why is it so hard when asked what are your gifts for people to answer that? And it may be for a variety of reasons. Maybe it's an overlap of many gifts that you have. But mainly it's, and I'm assuming this tonight, that mainly it's because when I say gifts, you're all thinking of natural talents. All of you have natural talents. If I went around and said to the cadets tonight, what are your natural talents? Some of you are going to be able to tie knots really well, aren't you? I couldn't do that. No. Some of you are going to be able to do things that, and naturally, you're better with your hands than others. I've told you before, Darcy just gave up on asking me to do anything around the house. It all breaks. I can't even screw a light bulb in without it getting jammed in there. Have you ever heard it said that when the Bible talks about spiritual gifts, you're not really talking about talents. You may be. But gifts surely may be connected with talents. But they're not necessarily the same thing. What do I mean? Unbelievers have talents, don't they? Unbelievers have things they can do. I mean, just because you're a Christian doesn't mean that you can do things better than other people. I mean, that's important. Christians don't have the corner on talents because they're Christians. Unbelievers can do some things way better than us. But here's what I believe Paul's emphasizing. If you ever were to go back to the book of Ephesians and look at the teaching on gifts, it says something really beautiful about the distribution of gifts. It says when Christ ascended, he led captivity captive and he gave gifts to men. supernatural endowments many have described it as endowments from him he saved us the greatest gift being salvation and then in his reign he doesn't uh he doesn't accept all the gifts he gives gifts he throws them down he he bestows them on us he bestows gifts on us as a gift beyond salvation that you can take and use for the upbuilding and encouragement of the body i mean the word the root for the word here for gift means grace so the lord lavishes down upon us gifts specifically to be used for the building up of the body now what paul is saying here is that this and in this entire chapter makes this clear that no one is lacking in this and being given a gift he specifically gives them so that you can have an active part in the building up of the church the body spiritual stones and the spiritual edifice isn't it remarkable all of you on loan from him are given something to be used for the upbuilding of the body do you think like that maybe we're running around thinking it's all about talents something special from him and the importance of this for now is to say every one of you is given something every one of you i'm going to address later how to think about that how to move forward with that i'm not doing that tonight what what i want to do tonight is say this. What it means is every single one of you are spiritual. You're vital to the project. You're important to the project. And notice he says here, there's a variety of gifts that he bestows, and then there's a variety of ministries where we get the word deacon. It means there are a variety of services among us. In other words, you could simply say the Lord not only gives you the gifts, but he gives you a whole bunch of opportunities to use that gift a variety of way in a creative way from the lord now notice it keeps saying same lord he's the one giving all this he's the one providing all this the gift and the opportunities to use it to you to use that gift and then he says a variety of activities for you to use it which it really means workings or of effects god empowers this and god empowers the use of the gifts so that even the effects and the results and the fruits belong to him that's what's happening so god gives you gifts god's giving you a variety of gifts opportunities to use those gifts and he's sovereignly in charge of the empowering of them and so that there is fruit for some in the use of their gifts will see greater fruit because the empowering and the effects are his i think it's encouraging i mean you've just been seeing this with moses the lord comes to moses and moses doesn't want to do it moses doesn't want to go he goes through a variety of excuses not to go and remember what he said moses you go he says you go you speak that was the gift you're going to speak as a prophet and he complains well i don't have the gift i can't speak well i can't listen i will be with your mouth and i'll teach you what you should say i'll deal with that i'll give you that you just go and then moses i'm going to give you the service you're going to go stand in the middle of pharaoh's courts and you're going to go stand in front of israel and you're going to say this there's the service and then moses i tell you what i will even empower it so that here's the effect pharaoh will either harden or soften his heart depending upon me and Moses, Israel will listen to your voice. You see it? The gift, the service, the effects. It's all there. Why is Paul explaining this tonight? Why do you need to understand that tonight? Well, think of the problem. What was everyone attracted to? Oh man, did you hear that guy speak in tongues wow did you see him heal did you see the working of miracles by that guy's hand what's everyone attracted to sign gifts speaking in tongues and healings and miracles well what did that create everyone began not only envying those gifts but everyone began to think well there's the really spiritual people what was the fruit of that it created one of the greatest divisions possible in the life of the church you say how so people stopped using the what they thought were lesser gifts totally irrelevant and ineffective they thought and you had a host of people envying and then people looking in awe at over the people who could do those gifts and then you had a host of copycats. Listen, in a prosperous time like America, what do you get? A host of false teachers because they realize the potential of that. You start getting persecution, these guys are going to go away, I promise you. They're gone. The church gets more pure. Well, Corinth was in a time of affluence. They had looked so much like the world. All these guys saw a great opportunity in this the church was falling apart because of the neglect of gifts that were meant to build up the church and everyone sat there refusing to accept the gifts the common or ordinary gifts that god had given them they became idle you know how much the new testament talks about being idle and the church was ripped apart in division i think division sometimes is seen in all the wrong places. In other words, we don't really think about where division shows itself. They were looking for spirituality and power in the super spiritual things. Everyone wanted to be copycats of this. If it were in our context, the really popular churches would be those who have the greatest gifts, right? They would be those who have the most awe-inspiring things happening. What do we want? A church with the best musicians, a church with the best pastor who can inspire us, a church with the best building, the best programs, that which seems to create an outer feeling of power. And when you have a bunch of people caught up in that, what do they become? Spectators. Spectators. have forgotten Christ's intention for gifts. Paul keeps saying something here. Gifts are given for the common good. It's amazing how in the early church everything was common and everything was shared. It was common. There was no individual mindset among the people. They ate in common. They gave in common. In fact, koine, the root of koinonia means common. They shared property, they shared meals, everything was designed to be together. We are so individualized. What happens in Corinth? You had a host of gifts separated from the body, and then what began to happen? Well, individual attention is given and glory is given to those gifts. Envy arises, it dominates the members. What do you think began to happen in worship? Well, practices in worship were chaotic. This is what Paul's dealing with here in the whole leadership structure of this section. Chaotic due to the super spiritual gifts, they thought, they became the focus of worship. And it would be like somebody soloing their gift in a fashion and everyone else just sits there and just becomes a spectator in observing the solo. That's why there are dangers in that, isn't there? It's not the intention of gifts. Never has been the intention of a gift to solo out. God handed you gifts. And this is what he said. Think about it. From whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. That's beautiful. So, God bestows upon you a gift. He fits you specifically into the particular local church to where you are. And this will frame, if you understand this, it also helps frame your whole view of membership and your whole understanding you're not a lone ranger. You're important to the whole. The whole thing is strengthened when people are functioning using their gifts the way they should be. But when the focus becomes on the singular gift or the attention becomes on that of the super spiritual ones and we become spectators, what happens? The body suffers. Let me give you an analogy. Imagine a football team where every player wanted to be the quarterback. Yeah, it doesn't work, guys, does it? Imagine all the linemen stop blocking. And imagine the running backs stop running. And imagine the receivers stop catching. But they all went out and they just stood in their positions eyeing the quarterback. Man, that's really impressive. I want to be the quarterback. That guy's really doing great stuff. What would happen to that football team? It wouldn't be much of a game, would it? My father was a basketball coach for years and he always said to me, I was one of the scorers and he says, don't you take that glory. He says, you didn't get that point except by the guy who set the pick for you. And that guy who ran over there and rebounded and set the picks and did nothing that was outwardly glorious made it possible for you to get that bucket. It was always bugged him that I got in the paper and these guys didn't. It was L'Amour, so it was no big deal. I still went around buying the Be Like Mike shirts. I still bought his tennis shoes. Everyone wanted to be like Mike, but no one could be like Mike. here's the point nothing works when we function that way we're community all gifts are designed for the common good that's how unity is created because that is the goal and notice paul keeps saying that same spirit same lord same god triune god unity when you take all these variety of gifts service and effects you build up the body in unity that's the result that's the goal it's not individualistic it's not to be spectators of others gifts and so in verses 8 through 11 what he does here is illustrate this by describing some of these gifts and i wrestled with or is he talking here about all extraordinary gifts i'm so tempted by that view is this all extraordinary it could be because he keeps saying an utterance of knowledge or an utterance of wisdom. But the main point here, and we'll look at that, we'll close here in a minute. In the New Testament, I have found it helpful to categorize the gifts as sign gifts, speaking gifts, and serving gifts. I've always found that division helpful. Speaking and serving gifts continue. It's the sign gifts that we are a little troubled with because we don't quite know how to process that. And that's because a lot of these were intended to die with the apostles as the church was being formed and as the church was going out to the ends of the earth. Even by the end of Acts, you see them dying out. It was specifically, they were given and intended to confirm their word and ministry. It needed to happen as the church was being formed there in the first century after Christ had died and rose again. and you'll notice in Romans there's no mention of sign gifts it's just speaking gifts and serving gifts here you have a real focus on the sign gifts Romans was written after Corinthians which probably shows that they were coming to an end with the apostles when Paul was writing to the Corinthians the sign gifts still existed it was a major problem for this church you could imagine it if the mystery cult religions are speaking gibberish and you had some speaking in tongues which were known languages you could imagine the confusion and how they thought the ecstatic speech as they brought that into the church how they thought that was super spiritual the gifts mentioned here are probably extraordinary but paul does what he does here is apply his point that these particular gifts are those that god gives that god provides a way of use and he distributes and empowers as he wants did you see that to the one 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 this the one spirit to another working of miracles to another prophecy to another the ability to distinguish between spirits to another various kinds of tongues to another interpretation of tongues all of these are empowered by one in the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills do you see what he's doing he just explained it god set apart some not all to give them the ability by the spirit have the utterance of wisdom let's say there are some among us who have a wonderful gift to be able to speak and discern wisdom in the circumstances circumstances and situations of life i love that wisdom is that ability to discern from god's word how to apply his truth to the life situations in which you find yourself that are often complex and disorienting and confusing and you don't feel there's an answer and God gives you brothers and sisters who can help you in that regard with that kind of gift and I have been immensely blessed in my life with men like this and women and I mean both it's been wonderful if I am looking at this commonly and I think there's a common element to this you know to another the utterance of knowledge and a gift of ability to understand and explain scriptures what happened in corinth everyone started using desiring that gift as the highest expression of enthusiasm and you see the problems all here he mentions gifts of he mentions here faith faith i've always thought what what is that doesn't everyone have faith can you imagine in the first century when jesus talked about faith and he talked about the gift that he gives of faith in a sense of being strong a pillar in the midst of some of the most difficult times of life and then he talks about forgiving right after i'm thinking of mark when he talked about the gift of faith and then asking for that and then forgiveness and then you see Stephen with such strong faith who's able to go to his death and as he's dying pray Lord forgive them don't give them they don't know what they're doing I always thought you know what an encouragement in a world that's falling apart and we Christians have such fear that God puts rocks in front of us who are not afraid to go to the knife. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. God's put these in front of us to help us and encourage us. See the common good of that? When that happens, it strengthens the body. In the first century, you had healings and miracles. I'll be dealing more with that later. You can think of Acts 19. Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick and diseases left them and evil spirits went out of them. Can you imagine if my handkerchief dropped and you guys were getting well? It doesn't go on today. But the Lord used that in the first century to confirm. unusual miracles the ability to he says discern spirits if there's a common element to that how much do we need discernment today how much do we need people who are willing to stand up and say listen that's wrong and discern the spirits and test what's right to see what's right and being willing to speak that our silence today is killing us imagine if somebody did that and use that gift i'm called to use it he goes on and the biggie tongues and various kinds of tongues i'll be dealing with that as we come into 14 but just to say when pentecost happened and people spoke in tongues it was known languages it was not ecstatic gibberish it was languages and people being able to then interpret and and explain the language what is all this showing you tonight i close with this corinth dealt with such an abuse of gifts it became chaos the leadership fell apart everything was for a show and paul's point is that the spirit distributes these gifts as he wills and it's vital for the common good of the body you are important for the common good of the body i close with this thought what he what was undermined ordinary ordinary gifts were undermined. Dull and boring. Powerless. Always been a problem in the history of the church. What appears to be powerless. What sits in the middle between 12 and 14? Well, if you're listening, it's chapter 13. What is that? The greatest of these is love. That's not very exciting i mean because that requires a total denial of myself doesn't it that requires that i not be seen that requires that every way chris gordon is denied and i am giving myself to you that's what love requires the very thing paul puts in the middle of this is that gift you're saying well i don't know what my gift is tonight you all can do that Or you could start here. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, goodness, kindness. Has God given you that? You may have a whole overlap of that. I hope you have all those because that's the fruit of the Spirit. use it and they need it next to you you need to know tonight you're vital to the project you are spiritual i've always reminded all my when i've preached that on the last day when the lord comes and he talks about as the belgics said tonight the good works he's going to reward what's the first thing he mentioned not the pastor's the giving of a cup of cold water in his name i close with the words of first peter as each one has received a gift minister to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of god if anyone speaks let him speak as the oracles of god if anyone ministers let him do it with the ability which god supplies that in all things god may be glorified through jesus christ god glorified to whom belong the glory and dominion forever and ever and those who are doing that are the ones who understand by the holy spirit what it means to say jesus is lord let's pray together heavenly father we're grateful that you give have poured out through your son gifts and have corrected our very superficial and our very worldly view of your church and that you continue to do this would you give us confidence then in knowing and understanding the gifts that you've given to us to use them boldly to realize that we're vital to the whole, that You have us here for a reason and that we would become servants of the King and of one another, loving fervently with a pure heart. Thank You that You showed us love in the midst of all of this, which ultimately requires then that we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow You. Thank You for loving us, O Lord, and may that incite us this week then, having been justified by faith and having peace with God to use our gifts for the honor and glory of Your great name. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.